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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




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LIFE OF 



William Kimbrough Pendleton, lld. 



President of Bethany College. 



FREDERICK H- POWER 



Juvat integros accedere 
fontes atqtie haurire. 



-I^ucretius. 



ST. Louis 



LIFE OF 



'iLLIM KlBROUGH fENDLETON. LL. 

President of Bethany College. 



•^ 



BY 

/ 

FREDERICK D. POWER 



, ll"^ Juvat integros accedere 

fontes atque haurire. 

— I^ucretius. 



St. Louis 

CHRISTIAN PUBIvISHING COMPANY 

1902 



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THt LiBPARY OF ' 

CONGRESS, 
Ons Copy Received 

iViAR. fg 1903 

iCLASS a XXa No.i 

j oopy rJ. I 



Copyright, 1903, by 
D. L. PENDLETON, Executor. 



TO THE OLD STUDENTS OF BETHANY: 

TO ALL LOVERS OF A NOBLE SOUL, 

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Full Face of Mr. Pendleto7i . 

Coat of Arms ...... 

Cuckoo House ...... 

University of Virgi?iia , 1S3S 

Gilboa ........ 

Wellsburg and Bethany in the 40' s 

Betha7ty Church and CampbelV s Study 

Views of the Buffalo ..... 

Translation from Schiller . . . . 

Faculty in the 50'' s ..... 

Pendleton Heights . . . . . 

The New College 

Unity Yancey Pendleton . . . . 

Alexander Campbell ..... 

Bethany Mansion — The CampbelV s Home 

Faculty in Later 60' s .... 

The Preacher-States7na?i . . . . 

Bethany Tow?i ...... 

The Corridor ...... 

Washboard Falls ..... 

The Tunnels ...... 

Falls and Swinging Bridge 

On the Rock Near Uniontown, Pa., Aug. 13, 
'95, where Campbell P^'^eached Se7mo7i 07i 
the Law Sept. 3, 1826 .... 

The Florida Home ..... 



faci7ig title page 
facing page 12 

" 20 

" 30 

" 38 

•' 58 

" 78 

" 100 

" 112 

" 140 

" 154 

" 180 

" 208 

" 238 

" 256 

" 268 

" 294 

" 330 

" 362 

" 384 

" 412 

" 438 



450 
482 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER. 

Foreword 

I. Ancestry . . 

II. Early Liee . 

III. At the University 

IV. The Turning Point 
V. Bethany 

VI. First Things 

VII. 1 840-1 846 

VIII. Vice-President oe the College 

IX. Ocean Voyage 

X. Called to be Co-Editor 

XI. 1848-1851 .... 

XII. First National Convention 

XIII. Crescite et Multiplicamini 

XIV. 1855 .... 
XV. Ilias Malorum 

XVI. Alma Mater Redidiva 

XVII. Storm and Stress 

XVIII. Inter Fontes Sacros . 

XIX. Editor oe the Harbinger 

XX. Pater et Filius . 



PAGE. 

7 

13 
21 
30 

39 
49 
58 
68 

79 

87 

TOO 
112 

128 
140 

167 
181 

195 
209 

229 
239 



XXI. President of Bethany College 256 



CONTENTS 



XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 
XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 



Haec OIvIM Meminissk Juvabit 

I^AST Days of the Harbinger 

Good Citizenship 

State Superintendent of Pub- 
wc Schools .... 

Views of Education 

Again in the Editorial Chair 

President General Christian 
Missionary Convention 

Talks by the Way 

Associate Editor of the Chris- 
tian Quarterly 

A Decade of Financial Strug- 
gle 

El Gibbor, Abi Ad, Sar Shalom 412 

From the Presidency to the 



269 

283 

295 

313 
331 

348 

362 

384 
396 



Farm .... 
Inter Folia Fructus 
Among Golden Spheres . 
The Glow of Autumn's Wes 

TERiNG Day . 
Commencement 



434 
435 



468 
483 



FOREWORD 



BkST, most instructive, and most fascinating of 
all studies in the realm of human knowledge is the 
study of a man. It is a science that embraces all 
sciences. "The true Shekinah is man," said Chrys- 
ostom. "In nature God is hid; in man is revealed," 
said Liddon. "There is but one temple in the 
world, and that temple is the body of man," said 
Novalis. "Man is an unutterable mystery of mys- 
teries," said Carlyle. "Every human being is a 
volume worthy to be studied," said Channing. 
«'Each particular man is the short and sad story of 
mankind, written by his own dear experience," 
said Quarles. Man is a microcosm. Man is the 
sum total of all the animals. Man, according to 
the Scriptures, is "the offspring of God"; the Father 
of Spirits is his Father. "We are all the work of 
Thy hand, we are the clay and Thou the potter." 
"Thy hand hath made me and fashioned me." 
Made a little lower than the angels; created in the 
image of God; a being of great dignity, placed at 
the head of Creation; the handiwork of God, the 
masterpiece of God, is man. 

Biography then becomes of immense value. The 
lives of men, of great and useful men, furnish one 
of the noblest inheritances of our race. To treasure 



viii FOREWORD 

up memorials of the wise, tlie learned, and the vir- 
tuous is to fulfill an exalted duty to mankind. 
What a debt the race owes Plutarch! What an 
obligation we are under to Bos well! How the world 
grieves over the meager details of Shakespeare's 
life! What inspiration for millions in the story of 
Washington or Lincoln or Garfield or Gladstone! 
What a pillar of fire on the world's horizon is Paul! 
How the four brief biographies of Jesus have moved 
the ages! 

Examples mean more than precepts. The virtu- 
ous example is virtue animated, alive and in motion, 
exhibiting all its graces before us. Mathematicians 
demonstrate their theorems by diagram ; orators back 
their arguments with inductions; philosophers urge 
the practice of Socrates or Plato in support of their 
doctrine; inventors describe models, architects use 
buildings, artists illustrate with paintings; the an- 
cient Romans placed the busts of distinguished 
ancestors in the vestibules of their houses to con- 
tinually remind them of their noble deeds and move 
the living members of their households to the imita- 
tion of their virtues. Life is too often wasted in 
the study of matters of secondary importance. Two 
old men, amateur naturalists, who had devoted their 
whole lives, one to ferns and the other to orchids, 
traveled together for many hours. At the end of 
their journey he who had cultivated ferns said to his 
companion, with a sigh, "I have wasted my life; if 
I had it to live over again, I should devote it to 
orchids." He who had cultivated orchids exclaim- 
ed, *'I have wasted my life; if I had it to live over 
again, I should devote it to ferns." 



FOREWORD ix 

Study men. Among noble characters none is 
worthier than the one presented in these pages. 
The writer, with deep sense of the imperfections of 
this portrait, unveils it. 

Washington, D. C, 1902. 



LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 




COAT OP ARMS. 



LIFE OF 
WILLIAM KIMBROUGH PENDLETON 



CHAPTER I 
ANCESTRY 



The study of origins has always been a fascinat- 
ing one. Whether the beginnings of life or of 
races, of governments or of religions, or of families, 
it is a matter of profound interest. The making of a 
man is an extended and marvelous process. When 
should the education of a child begin? Twenty-five 
years before he is born, with the training of his 
mother, we say. But farther back than a quarter of 
a century are its sources. What biography describes 
as the influence of parents, biology would speak of 
as heredity. Garfield used to say, "The product 
which we call character is the result of two great 
forces: the initial force which the Creator gave it 
when he called the man into being, and the force 
of all the external influences and culture which 
mould and modify in the development of a life. In 
contemplating the first of these elements, no power 
of analysis can exhibit all the latent forces enfolded 
in the spirit of a new-born child, which derive their 
origin from the thoughts and deeds of remote ances- 
tors, and, enveloped in the awful mystery of life, 

13 



14 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

have been transmitted from generation to genera- 
tion across forgotten centuries. Bach new life is 
thus the heir of all the ages." 

Every man has his Sepher-Toledoth, his "Book 
of Generations." The Bible is an example of the 
wisdom of preserving such records. The sacred 
writings contain genealogies extending back thirty- 
five hundred years. Through more than four thous- 
and years the genealogy of Christ is deduced from 
Adam, Matthew giving the line through Joseph, and 
lyuke through Mary, "Those who do not look upon 
themselves as a link connecting the past with the 
future," said Daniel Webster, "do not perform their 
duty to the world." 

William Kimbrough Pendleton was the son of 
Edmund Pendleton and Unity Yancey Kimbrough, 
and was born in Yanceyville, Louisa County, Vir- 
ginia, September 8, 1817. Edmund Pendleton, his 
father, born October 14, 1786, was a son of Henry 
Pendleton and Alice Ann Winston. The grand- 
mother of Edmund Pendleton, on the paternal side, 
was Sarah Madison, a cousin of President Madison, 
and his grandfather, John Pendleton, a brother of 
Judge Edmund Pendleton, was presiding magistrate 
of the county in which he lived, and a member of 
the Virginia House of Burgesses. On the maternal 
line, his grandfather was Captain John Winston of 
the Continental Army, 1778-1781, and Alice Bick- 
erton. Unity Yancey Kimbrough, born November 
28, 1787, was a daughter of Joseph Kimbrough and 
Elizabeth Yancey. Her father was universally 
loved, and notably esteemed for his many virtues, 
and her mother, a gracious woman, was a sister of 



ANCESTRY iS 

Colonel Robert Yancey, founder and sole proprietor 
of Yanceyville. Her ancestors came from Wales, 

1642. 

The name Pendleton signifies tlie summit of the 
hill: Gaelic, Pendel, summit, and Dun, hill. Pen- 
dal-ton is the town at the head of the valley. 
The Pendletons were good English stock. In 1674 
there came from Norwich, England, to Virginia, 
two brothers; Nathaniel Pendleton, a minister of 
the established church, and Philip, a schoolmaster. 
The former died without issue, the latter is the 
ancestor of all the Pendletons. He had three sons 
and four daughters, and from these came numerous 
descendants. His eldest son, Henry, married, at the 
age of eighteen, Mary Taylor, who was but thirteen. 
Their sous were James, John, Philip, Nathaniel 
and Edmund, The last was president of the Court 
of Appeals. These sons all married and left chil- 
dren, except Edmund, the judge, who was married 
twice, but left no child. The descendants of the 
grandchildren of the first Pendleton intermarried 
with the Taylors, Pollards, Roys, Gaineses, Lewises, 
Pages, Nelsons, Harts, Richards, Taliaferros, Tur- 
ners, Shepherds, Carters, Kemps, Palmers, Dand- 
xidges. Cooks, and now number thousands in Vir- 
ginia and elsewhere. Edmund Pendleton, born in 
Caroline County, Virginia, 1721, was a noted patriot, 
the associate of such men as Peyton Randolph, Pat- 
rick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, George Washing- 
ton and Benjamin Harrison. He served as member 
of the House of Burgesses and of the first Conti- 
nental Congress, and until his death was judge and 
president of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. In 



i6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

his autobiography he says, "Without any classical 
education, without patrimony, without what is 
called the influence of family connection, and with- 
out solicitation, I have attained the highest offices 
of my country. I have often contemplated it as a 
rare and extraordinary incident, and pathetically 
exclaimed, 'Not unto me, not unto me, O Lord, but 
unto Thy name be the praise!' " He wrote of him- 
self, in 1 80 1, "I have never had curiosity, or more 
properly pride, enough, to search the Herald's 
Office or otherwise inquire into the antiquity of my 
family in England, though I have always supposed 
the two brothers who came here were what they 
called there, of a good family — fallen to decay — 
since they were well educated, and came, the one as 
a minister, the other as a schoolmaster; however, I 
have had pleasure in hearing uniformly that my 
grandfather and his immediate descendants were 
very respectable for their piety and moral virtue — 
the character preserved in the family to a degree 
scarcely to be expected in one so numerous. My 
mother was among the best of women, and her fam- 
ily highly respectable." 

Judge Pendleton was one of a committee in 1764 
to memorialize the King, and declared, in 1766, the 
Stamp Act was "void, and did not bind the people 
of Virginia." In company with George Washing- 
ton, he attended the session of the Continental Con- 
gress in Philadelphia, 1774. He presided over the 
Virginia Convention in 1776, and drew up the cele- 
brated resolutions, instructing the delegates from 
Virginia to propose a declaration of independence in 
Congress, using the words incorporated almost ver- 



ANCESTRY 17 

batim in the Declaration, 'Hhat the delegation be 
instructed to propose to declare the United Colonies 
free and independent states, absolved from all alle- 
giance or dependence upon the crown or Parliament 
of Great Britain." He was made Speaker of the 
House on the organization of the State Government, 
and was appointed with Thomas Jefferson and 
George Wythe to revise the Colonial Laws, and on 
the establishment of the Court of Appeals, 1779, he 
became President and held that office till his death. 
He presided also over the state convention that rati- 
fied the Constitution of the United States. "Taken 
all in all," said Jefferson, "he was the ablest man 
in debate I ever met with," and Washington Irving 
said of him, "He was schooled in public life, a vet- 
eran in council, with native force of intellect, and 
habits of deep reflection." 

William Wirt said of Edmund Pendleton: "He 
had in a great measure overcome the disadvantages 
of an extremely defective education, and by force of 
good compan}/' and. the study of correct. authors, had 
attained to great accuracy and perspicuity of style. 
His manners were elevated, graceful and insinuat- 
ing. His person was spare, but well proportioned, 
and his countenance one of the finest in the world; 
serene, contemplative, benignant; with that expres- 
sion of unclouded intelligence and extensive reach 
which seemed to denote him capable of anything 
that could be effected by the powers of the human 
mind. His mind itself was of a very fine order. It 
was clear, comprehensive, sagacious and correct; 
with a most acute and subtle faculty of discrimina- 
tion; a fertility of expedient which never could be 



i8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

exhausted; a dexterity of address which never lost 
an advantage and never gave one ; and a capacity for 
continued and unremitting application which was 
perfectly invincible. As a lawyer and a statesman 
he had few equals, and no superiors. For parlia- 
mentary management, he was without a rival. With 
all these advantages of person, manners, address and 
intellect, he was also a speaker of distinguished emi- 
nence. He had that silver voice of which Cicero 
makes such frequent and honorable mention; an 
articulation uncommonly distinct; a perennial stream 
of transparent, cool and sweet elocution; and the 
power of presenting his arguments with great sim- 
plicity and striking effect. He was always grace- 
ful, argumentative, persuasive; never vehement, 
rapid or abrupt. He could instruct and delight; but 
he had no pretentions to those high powers which 
are calculated 'to shake the human soul.' " 

Hugh Blair Grigsby, in an account of the Conven- 
tion of 1776, in vy^hich were assembled such men as 
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, James Madison, 
Thomas Nelson and many of their illustrious com- 
peers, writes of Pendleton as being "in an intellect- 
ual point of view, one of the accomplished speakers 
in the House." "Nor were his physical at all in- 
ferior to his intellectual powers," continues this 
v/riter. "He was fully six feet in height, and was 
in the vigor of life, having reached his fifty-fifth 
year. His face was so comely as to have won for 
its possessor the reputation of being the handsomest 
man in the Colony; his noble form, lithe and grace- 
ful in all its movements, his manners polished by 



ANCESTRY 19 

all the intercourse of a quarterof a century with the 
most refined circle of the metropolis and the Colony ; 
his voice clear and ringing, so that its lowest note 
was distinctly heard throughout the hall; and a self- 
possession so supreme as to sustain him in the 
fiercest collisions of debate as if in a state of repose." 

It is remarkable in how many particulars these 
descriptions would fit the President of Bethany Col- 
lege. Of him we may well say, Decori dectts addit 
avito. 

Beginning life in poverty. Judge Pendleton ac- 
quired a large property, and built a handsome house, 
Edmundsbury, Caroline County, Va., where he lived 
during his short intervals of leisure, and where his 
widow resided for many years. Henry Pendleton, 
his nephew, in 181 8, built the home in Louisa Coun- 
ty known as Cuckoo. Colonel Edmund Pendleton, 
the father of W. K. Pendleton, who, under the old 
county court system, then in vogue, was presiding 
justice in the county court of Louisa,™ a place of no 
small honor in those good old conservative days, — 
was widely known in his county and far beyond it. 
His striking characteristics, still well remembered, 
were a clear head and an inborn judicial mind, with 
an individuality peculiarly his own, a strong and in- 
flexible will, and a large measure of plain, common 
sense, most essential requisites in one called to dis- 
pense justice. Unity Yancey Kimbrough, mother 
of W. K. Pendleton, was a woman of culture and 
refinement, noted for her great amiability, gentle- 
ness and pre-eminent piety. While their son Wil- 
liam was an infant, they removed from Yancey ville 
to the home built by his great-grandfather, Henry 



20 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Pendleton. Here, amid scenes of unusual rural 
beauty and social surroundings of exceptional culture 
and refinement and moral and religious tone, the 
subject of our memoir spent his childhood. 



CHAPTER II 

EARLY LIFE 

The year 1817 was an interesting one in the his- 
tory of the United States. James Monroe, the fifth 
president, came to the White House. It was two 
years after Waterloo. The lighting of cities by gas 
had just been introduced into the United States in 
the City of Baltimore, Md. Two years must elapse 
before the first trip across the Atlantic was made by 
steamer. New York City had then only one hun- 
dred and fifteen thousand people, and it required 
but the modest sum of twenty millions a year to 
meet all expenses of the Government, It was the 
"Era of Good Feeling," when a lull came after the 
storm of war with the Mother Country, and the land 
settled down to vocations of peace, with revived 
commerce, specie payments, and vast extensions of 
territory. Mississippi, the twentieth state, was ad- 
mitted to the Union that year, and soon after Illi- 
nois, then Florida was purchased, then Alabama and 
Maine came in, and later Missouri. John Quincy 
Adams was Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun, 
Secretary of War, and William Wirt, Attorney-Gen- 
eral. It is the administration that witnessed the 
war with the Seminole Indians,, the visit of La 
Fayette, and the awakening of the controversy over 
the rival economical policies of protection and free 
trade, and the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine, 
or the assertion of national guardianship by the 

21 



22 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLET ON 

United States over the New World, and of freedom 
from entangling alliances with the Old World. 

A study of social and religious conditions in Vir- 
ginia at this time is full of interest. The people 
lived well, were moderately industrious and enter- 
prising, had their amusements and festivities, and 
political and local gossip during the week, and went 
religiously to church on Sunday, were quite content 
without daily newspapers, railroads, telegraph and 
electric lights, wireless telegraphy and the automo- 
bile, made history, served their generation, and got, 
if anything, more solid comfort out of life than their 
more favored descendants of the twentieth century. 

John Esten Cooke in his History of Virginia, speak- 
ing of the amusements of the period, 1737, tells 
how in "the old field near Captain Bickerton's, in 
Hanover, there are to be grand diversions. First, a 
horse race, a hat to be cudgeled for, twenty fiddlers 
to contend for a new fiddle— all to play together, 
and each a different tune, twelve boys to run one 
hundred and twelve yards for a hat worth twelve 
shillings, a pair of silver buckles to be wrestled for, 
the prettiest girl on the ground to have a pair of 
handsome silk stockings of one pistole's value; and 
all this mirth is designed to be purely innocent." 

This Captain Bickerton was the great, great- 
grandfather of W. K. Pendleton, and his descend- 
ants in the adjoining county a hundred years later 
seem to have amused themselves in much the 
same way. There used to be a saying that you 
could tell a Pendleton "because he had blue eyes, 
was fond of coffee, and played a fiddle." W. K. 
Pendleton's father was a colonel of militia, and their 



EARLY LIFE 23 

annual grand musters were occasions of great festiv- 
ity. Old people can still point out tlie site of the 
cockpit, and the dancing master was one of the in- 
stitutions of the county. He went from neighbor- 
hood to neighborhood, and from house to house, and 
one of the young Pendletons, now known and be- 
loved in all that region as "Dr. Phil," was so pro- 
ficient in the art of tripping the light fantastic toe 
that this functionary would send for him from quite 
a distance to exhibit his grace and skill at the 
soirees he gave. Another of the Pendletons, how- 
ever, was so far behind in this accomplishment that 
he habitually danced with a barrel hoop around his 
legs to correct a tendency to bow-leggedness. Fox 
hunting was a favorite sport with the gentry of this 
early time. Great hunts were organized at Cuckoo 
as a center, when a pack of twenty to forty hounds 
were gathered, and a score or more of horsemen, and 
start made before daylight in search of Reynard. W. 
K. Pendleton used to tell of these festive occasions, 
and how he begged at one time so hard to be al- 
lowed to go with the huntsmen that his mother con- 
sented and entrusted him to a neighbor, behind 
whom he rode all through the hunt, and was *4n at 
the death." He recalled just where the fox was 
caught, and went over the place in one of his last 
visits to the old home to verify his recollection. In 
that same neighborhood and in the same homes, the 
same families now regard a protracted meeting as 
the most enjoyable occasion of the year. 

Louisa County, formed from Hanover, 1742, first 
sent Patrick Henry as a delegate to the Virginia 
Plouse of Burgesses in 1765, and again elected him 



24 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

in 1776 and 1777. Tarleton with His cavalry passed 
through the county in 1781 on his expedition into 
Albemarle; and when LaFayette had united with 
Wayne at Raccoon Ford on the Rapid Ann and 
turned to pursue the British general, he made a 
forced and rapid march across the county, the road 
Y/hich he opened for the purpose being long known 
as the ^'Marquis's Road." In May of that year, 
when Cornwallis invaded Virginia, the Legislature 
adjourned from Richmond to Charlottesville. Tarle- 
ton followed them in June with two hundred and 
fifty cavalry, having orders to surprise the General 
Assembly, and seize Jefferson, who v/as then Governor 
of the State. Having learned Tarleton's object, by 
means of a fleet horse and a nearer road a young 
American trooper named Jouett vvas able to give two 
hours' notice of his approach. All the members of 
the Assembly, but seven, effected their escape, and 
reassembled in Staunton, forty miles away. Jeffer- 
son got the news of Tarleton's coming about sun- 
rise, had Mrs. Jefferson and their three children hur- 
ried off in a carriage, and he followed on horseback, 
and had not left the house ten minutes before Tarle- 
ton entered it. Tarleton took possession of Char- 
lottesville on the fourth of June, and on the next day 
joined Lord Cornwallis. 

The Cuckoo House occupied the site of a former 
inn or "ordinary," where, as the story goes, some of 
Tarleton's men were drinking when Jouett over- 
heard their plans to ride to Charlottesville and cap- 
ture the Governor and the Legislature. He made a 
rapid ride through the country and warned Jefferson 
and the Legislature in time to break up hastily and 



EARLY LIFE 25 

take to the woods. Out of tlie associations of a tav- 
ern of the olden time, the Cuckoo House became a 
center of Christian influence that has been felt far 
and wide, and from the traditions of a cross-roads 
settlement where the people gathered for militia 
musters, fox hunts, and other gay festivities, a quiet 
village has been evolved, noted for the culture and 
the elevated religious spirit of its people. 

The educational system of Virginia at this time was 
limited for the most part to the "Old Field" school 
and the classical academy. In most of the strict- 
ly rural districts of Virginia, the school houses were 
rude structures built of pine poles, with benches 
made of a single plank and without backs, and here, 
from sun to sun, the scholars, many of them very 
small, were required to sit and pore over hard les- 
sons in close study, rather in dose confinement, nine 
or ten hours a day, for five days in the v/eek, and 
nine months in the year; and it hardly seems strange 
that on cloudy mornings it was the practice of many 
a small boy or girl to pray earnestly for a rainy day, 
that the holidays for one week at Christmas were 
welcomed with great hilarity, and that the pent-up 
mischief and suppressed play of these little ones 
should break out in the practical jokes they played 
on each other and on the teacher in the way of stick- 
ing pins in a boy at close study and close range, 
placing bent pins, at recess and on the sly, in the 
seat of the teacher, or cutting dexterously his long 
switch— long enough to reach any boy without ris- 
ing — half in two in many places, to make sure of 
its breaking at the first vigorous application. 

Flogging was a remedy applied on all occasions 



26 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and for all offenses. It was, like the doctor's pre- 
scription, "To be well shaken and then taken, in- 
ternally, externally and eternally," One trained 
under one of these old-time teachers who had pre- 
sided over the young idea shooting of three genera- 
tions, declared, when a man of sixty years of age, 
that he never met the old schoolmaster without 
feeling the stroke of the birch come over him afresh. 
It was a never-to-be-forgotten sensation. It was the 
custom in these primitive schools for the teacher, on 
the first day of the school session, to post conspicu- 
ously his Rules and Regulations, forbidding any 
laughing, talking, whispering, etc. , in school time, 
and requiring close study and good lessons on the 
part of all, and for flagrant infraction of these rules, 
flogging would be the penalty, not so cruelly laid on 
perhaps, but not wholly unlike that of the Irish 
schoolmaster of the old song: 

" Old Teddy O'Rooke kept a bit of a school, 
At a place called Flaherty, where he made it a rule, 
If the mind didn't mark, faith, he'd soon mark the back. 
And give them their own with a terrible crack." 

At the age of thirteen, W. K. Pendleton and a 
younger brother were entered in the school of Jere- 
miah C. Harris, the prince of pedagogues, who had 
at all times an unlimited supply of big words, and 
rather gloried in his pedantry. He was a man 
famous in his day as a teacher of English, who, 
while not a professional lecturer, did a vast deal of 
talking by way of explanation and beating English 
into the heads of his classes. He was fond of argu- 
ing, and when apparently driven to the wall in an 



EARLY LIFE 27 

argument, like Dr. Goldsmith's Village School- 
master, 

" He could argue still 
While words of learned length and thundering sound 
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around; 
And still they gazed and still the wonder grew 
That one small head could carry all he knew." 

It is worthy of mention that this faithful old 
schoolmaster, who was at all times reverent and de- 
vout, during the prevalence of a thunderstorm was 
ever ready to gather all his school around him and 
set them all to singing some old familiar hymn, 
such as the good old song of praise, more sung then 
than now — 

" God moves in a mysterious v/ay, 
His wonders to perform; 
He plants his footsteps on the sea, 
And rides upon the storm." 

It was in his first session under Jeremiah Harris 
that W. K. Pendleton, a boy proverbially gentle, 
genial and full of innocent fun, but who, it is fair to 
say, would stand up for his rights when forced to do 
so. was insulted by a boy taller than himself, and re- 
sented the insult by a good blow quickly struck at 
his antagonist, and, a fight ensuing, the two com- 
batants v/ere parted by the bigger boys. On the 
next morning it so happened that the Pendleton 
boy brought to school, concealed in his pocket, a 
very rusty old flintlock pistol with a small package 
of powder, and had two of the boys to load the pis- 
tol, saying he knew the boy who had insulted him 
was a coward, and he wanted to see him run. The 
pistol was loaded by the boys, and at recess all the 



28 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

school was invited into the woods to play, when the 
quarrel was renewed, and the pistol fired over the 
head of the offending youth. Immediately he took 
to his heels, outrunning all the other boys, and cry- 
ing as he ran, "I am shot! I am shot!" He fell into 
the arms of the teacher, still crying, "I am shot!" 
"Where are you shot? where are you shot, my son?" 
exclaimed the teacher. But just then one of the 
boys who had loaded the pistol came up, and, an- 
swering the teacher's question, said, "He is not shot 
at all. William Pendleton put nothing in his old 
flintlock but pov/der, and that was fired over his 
head, as Pendleton said he only wanted to see him 
run, and he did run like the patter-rollers were after 
him." With this explanation the teacher seemed 
satisfied, but the next morning in large display let- 
ters on his bulletin board was posted this addendum 
to his rules and regulations: '■'■All the boys are posi- 
tively forbidden from bringing firearms to this 
school. ' ' 

Colonel Pendleton told his boys if he ever knew 
of their taking an insult from a bigger boy, he 
would himself give them a flogging when they came 
home. Few days passed, Mr. Pendleton said, in 
which he did not have at least one fight, but this 
was generally provoked by the conduct of some 
other boy toward another and smaller one, rarely on 
his own account. He was naturally of a quick tem- 
per, but as he grew older he controlled it. Phre- 
nologists gave combativeness as the largest bump on 
his head, yet his life was one of peace-loving and 
peace-making, only he fought tirelessly with tongue 
and pen when wrong or error was to be combated. 



EARLY LIFE 29 

At the end of the second session under Harris, 
young Pendleton passed all his examinations and 
was awarded by his faithful instructor a certificate 
of highest merit in all his studies, especially in 
English. From this school he passed to the classic- 
al academy of W. G. Nelson, the famous teacher of 
lyatin and Greek. After several sessions here, he 
entered the school of David Richardson, a thorough 
teacher of mathematics and astronomy, famous for 
fifty years as the author of Richardson's almanac — 
known and read of all men throughout Virginia and 
North Carolina, and extolled by many an old farmer 
for *'its remarkable forecasts of the weather." From 
the Richardson school young Pendleton passed to 
the University of Virginia, where he entered upon 
the full academic course. 



CHAPTER III 
AT THE UNIVERSITY 

The University of Virginia is an old institution, 
beautiful for situation, placid, solid, evangelical and 
thorough in culture. It has been noted, since its 
establishment, for the excellent learning of its in- 
structors and the high character of its students. It 
has given to the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives a greater number of graduates than Yale and 
Harvard combined, owing to the large patronage of 
the institution by Southern men. It has proven an 
inspired Castalian fountain, worthy of the name of 
its great founder. 

Thomas Jefferson has not received the credit due 
him for his interest in the religious tone of the uni- 
versity. In his scheme submitted to the State Leg- 
islature in 1818, relative to its founding, he pro- 
posed that there should be left on the grounds room 
for a building to be erected for "religious worship," 
and on another occasion he wished to have two 
rooms in the main building set apart for this pur- 
pose. The motto of the university may be read in 
Greek on the front of one of its stateliest buildings: 
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make 
you free." 

Nothing is more interesting than the story of this 
famous school. As early as 1779, Jefferson sought 
to incorporate into the legal code of the infant state 
a general system of education, satisfying the needs 

30 



AT THE UNIVERSITY 31 

of all classes of the community. The plan contem- 
plated three orders of seminaries: elementary schools 
maintained at public charge and free to all ; general 
schools corresponding to academies and colleges, 
supported chiefly by the fees of pupils and de- 
signed to embrace a course of general instruction in 
languages, natural sciences and philosophy; and the 
university, in which should be taught, in the highest 
degree, every branch of knowledge. The general 
division of subjects for university instruction was as 
follows: the Fine Arts, Applied Science, Law and 
Theology, the last to be taught so far, and so far 
only, as it might not tend to sectarianism. 

On Mr. Jefferson's retirement from the presidency 
in 1809, he set his plan in operation. In 181 8 the 
State decided to appropriate fifteen thousand dollars 
a year to endow and support the University. It was 
organized by Jefferson with a "rector and visitors," 
having power to appoint professors, prescribe their 
duties and regulate the government and discipline 
of students. There is no president, but a Chairman 
of the Faculty, chosen annually, thus making each 
professor a constituent element in the governing 
body, with his share of influence in shaping its pol- 
icy and fortunes. The professors were paid one 
thousand dollars each by salary, and in part by fees 
of tuition. At present, each receives the modest 
sum of three thousand and a house. 

The University is really a collection of schools, 
each with one or more instructors devoted to a 
special subject, but under a common government; 
organized with eight, it now has nineteen: twelve 
academic and seven professional. Students attend 



32 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

as many as they see fit, no one being allowed to 
take less than three. There is no theological de- 
partment. This omission was not prompted by hos- 
tility to religion, as has been thought, but was made 
necessary by the policy of the commonwealth to 
divorce the state from the church, and embodied in 
the act of 1785, "Establishing Religious Freedom." 
Not insensible to the Christian sentiment of Vir- 
ginia, however, Mr. Jefferson procured an enactment 
declaring that if any religious denomination should 
establish its theological seminary near the Univer- 
sity, its students should be admitted upon the same 
terms as its own pupils. Jefferson died July 4th, 
1826, the year the University opened 5 exactly half 
a century after signing the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. Adams passed away the same day, just after 
Jefferson, and as he breathed his last, exclaimed, 
*' Thomas Jefferson still lives!" Dr. Robley Dungli- 
son, one of the first professors of the University, 
and afterward a celebrated medical author and pro- 
fessor in Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, 
was Jefferson's physician, and describes his last 
moments. He evidently wished to die on the anni- 
versary of the Nation's birth. "In the course of 
the day and night of the second of July he was 
afflicted with stupor, with intervals of wakefulness 
and consciousness, but on the third the stupor be- 
came almost permanent. About seven o'clock in 
the evening of that day he awoke, and seeing me 
standing at his bedside, exclaimed, 'Ah, Doctor, are 
you still there?' in a voice, however, that was husky 
and indistinct. He then asked, 'Is it the Fourth?' 
to which I replied, 'It soon will be.' Those were 



AT THE UNIVERSITY 33 

the last words I heard him utter. He died at 12:50 
p. M. July 4th5 having remained all that day uncon- 
scious." 

It will be impossible to estimate the work of this 
famous seat of learning or mention the illustrious 
names of its teachers and students. Its first rectors 
were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and its 
most famous alumnus Edgar A. Poe, Its alumni are 
numbered by thousands, its literature has been rich 
and abundant, its influence reaches everywhere. It 
has rendered its great service to mankind on a slight 
foundation, so far as money is concerned, having re- 
ceived less than one million in gifts. The Univer- 
sity presents a scene of idyllic beauty. Here is the 
noble quadrangle with its one-story dormitories and 
continuous pillared arcades like the cloisters of a 
monastery, broken here and there by professors' 
dwellings, and with the stately Pantheon or rotunda 
at the end. Below is the town of Charlottesville, 
and beyond, Monticello, where rests the illustrious 
statesman. Far away stretches the Rapid Ann, 
where there is good angling for the patient knights 
of the rod, and where every bend and bridge and 
ford tells of historic scenes of the Civil War. On 
every side are the blue hills in whose coves grow 
the famous pippins Vv^hich alone grace the tables of 
Windsor Castle, and fertile fields and gardens. And 
here is a society, hospitable, refined and charming, 
such as the Old Dominion can so well furnish. In 
such an atmosphere, among such scenes and tradi- 
tions, young Pendleton found his fine tastes and 
noble ambitions fully met. 

He entered the University for the session of 1836- 
3 



34 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

1837, and that session studied ancient languages 
under Dr. Gessner Harrison, mathematics under 
Prof. Charles Bonnycastle, and natural philosophy 
under Dr. William Rodgers. During the session of 
1837-8, he had ancient languages and mathematics 
again, and law under Prof. J. A. G. Davis. In 
1838-9 he studied law only. 

Chapman Johnson was rector of the Board of Vis- 
itors during these years, and the chairman of the 
faculty was Prof. J. A. G. Davis for the first session 
and Dr. Gessner Harrison for the other two. In 
view of Mr. Pendleton's subsequent career it is inter- 
esting to note that the chaplains during his stay 
here were Reverend Septimus Tustin, Presbyterian, 
afterwards chaplain of the United States Senate; 
Reverend B. P. B. Wilmer, afterward Bishop of 
Louisiana, and Reverend Daniel S. Doggett, after- 
ward Bishop in the M. B. Church South. The 
chaplains were chosen in turn at that time from the 
four leading denominations, the Episcopal, Method- 
ist, Baptist and Presbyterian. Alexander Campbell, 
on his first visit to Charlottesville, speaking of this 
regulation, says: "A new sort of quadrangular ortho- 
doxy got into the institution. The chaplain must 
belong to some one of the four angles of a parallelo- 
gram. He must be an Episcopalian, Presbyterian, 
Methodist or Baptist. There are but four ways to 
Heaven from the University of Virginia," and he 
wants to know, "By what chapter and verse of the 
Book of Kings, or by what statute of the Common- 
wealth of Virginia, or by what suggestion of Thomas 
Jefferson are the four elect sects placed over the 



AT THE UNIVERSITY 35 

religious and moral culture of all tlie Virginia youth 
who frequent the state institution?" 

There were two hundred and sixty-five students 
in the University the year Mr. Pendleton entered. 
Among the Board of Visitors were James M. Mason, 
William C, Rives, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 
Joseph C. Cabell, and other prominent Virginians. 
Among the faculty, in addition to those named, 
were such well remembered instructors as George 
V/. Blaetterman, who filled the chair of Modern 
Languages, John P. Emmet, Professor of Chemistry, 
Alfred T. Magill, Professor of Medicine, and George 
Tucker, Professor of Moral Philosophy. The list of 
his fellow-students shows many names of men after- 
ward prominent in the church, in the state, in the 
department of education, in the army and navy, and 
other fields of service. Such men as John B. Bald- 
win, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, 
John Critcher, Member of Congress, Lafayette 
McLaws, Major-General C. S. A., Alexander Walker, 
Author and Journalist, Thomas H. Watts, Attorney- 
General in Jefferson Davis' Cabinet and Governor of 
Alabama, Carnot Posey, Brigadier-General, C. S. A., 
William M. Merrick, United States Judge, M. C, 
and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, D. C, 
and others of equal eminence. 

The method of teaching then, as now, was by 
text books and lectures, with rigid examinations. 
The courses in the schools of Ancient Languages, 
Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Law were 
exceedingly thorough, and the teachers in those 
schools were the most eminent men in the Univer- 
sity. There were three honorary distinctions con- 



36 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ferred by the institution: a Certificate of Profi- 
ciency, that of Graduate in any School, and that of 
Master of Arts in the University of Virginia. No 
particular period of study was prescribed for the 
acquisition of these honors. The student obtained 
them whenever he could undergo the severe exami- 
nations to which the candidates for them were sub- 
jected. The total expenses of a student were two 
hundred and thirty-eight dollars, exclusive of 
"books and stationery, clothing and pocket money." 
Among the items of expense was twenty dollars "on 
account of fuel and candles, and ten dollars to cover 
contingent charges and assessments against him for 
injuries to buildings, etc." Clothing is estimated at 
a sum hot exceeding one hundred dollars during the 
session, and pocket money, forty dollars. Students 
were required "to wear the uniform prescribed by 
the enactments, consisting of cloth of a dark gray 
mixture at a price not exceeding six dollars a yard." 

Little is recorded of this formative period in the 
life of Mr. Pendleton. The entry on the Matricula- 
tion Book reads: "William K. Pendleton, Septem- 
ber 8, 1817 — Colonel Edmund Pendleton — Cuckoo- 
ville, Louisa County, Va. ' ' He does not seem to have 
been an enthusiast in pure mathematics. He passed 
with distinction in natural philosoph)/, and must 
have had great delight in the brilliant lectures of 
Dr. Rodgers in that department. It is doubtful if to 
the law he gave his whole interest. Those familiar 
with his teaching and accomplishments in later life 
would naturally draw this inference. 

One of his chums at the University was Johnson' 
Barbour, only son of ex-Governor James Barbour, 



AT THE UNIVERSITY 37 

and nephew of Philip Pendleton Barbour, Justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States. While 
there, v/ith young Barbour, Shelton F. Leake, of 
Charlottesville, afterward a famous lawyer and mem- 
ber of Congress, John Goss, brother of James W. 
Goss, and others, he assisted in the organization of 
one of the debating societies of the University. 
Goss and Pendleton were warm friends. The first 
time the latter tried to speak, he was so frightened 
that he lost all command of his faculties and made a 
melancholy failure. Mr. Goss, following him, took 
the opportunity to ridicule him mercilessly. This 
made him so indignantly angry that he forgot every- 
thing else, and in his rejoinder made his argument 
without hesitation, with clear, telling force, and 
won for his side of the discussion. As soon as the 
meeting adjourned, he went to Mr. Goss, and in the 
name of their friendship began to upbraid him bit- 
terly for his unkind personalities. '*Why," said 
the latter, * 'don't you understand now? I saw that 
you were going to make a complete failure, if I 
could not make you forget yourself, and I knew that 
to arouse your indignation would be the sure way to 
do this." 

In his choice of a profession, Mr. Pendleton de- 
parted from the recognized family calling. There 
were four brothers; tv/o of them entered the law and 
two the medical profession. How the lawyers exer- 
cised the necessary self-control not to become doc- 
tors has ever been a problem, as the most pro- 
nounced predilection toward medicine runs in the 
family. During the Civil War a Federal officer 
overtook a lonely horseman, who excused himself 



38 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

from arrest on tlie ground that he was a Dr. Pendle- 
ton going his rounds. The officer asked, "Well, 
what Dr. Pendleton are you? — Dr. William, Dr. Joe, 
Dr. Matt., Dr. Lewis, Dr. John, or Dr. Edmund?" 
There ^were seven of the name practicing the art of 
healing. Prepared by thorough study and mastery 
of the principles of the highest of the sciences for 
active v*^ork, Mr. Pendleton went back to his old 
home in Louisa County, and in 1840 was formally 
admitted to the bar, under a license granted on a 
searching and protracted examination by three of 
Virginia's most eminent judges. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE TURNING POINT 

About the year 1834, Colonel Edmund Pendleton 
and Ms wife, Mrs. Unity Yancey Pendleton, who 
had been religiously trained in the Episcopal faith 
but had become interested in the early writings of 
Alexander Campbell, were so seriously impressed 
with the simplicity of the gospel as expounded by 
him, that both gladly received the v/ord, and on a 
confession of their faith were duly baptized. Dr. 
Madison Pendleton, their oldest son, and his wife, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Barret Pendleton, having a short 
while before, on a like confession, received baptism 
— these, with a few others, enrolled as charter mem- 
bers of the Christian Church, worshiping at the old 
Gilboa Meeting House, near Cuckoo. 

It was at the house of Colonel Pendleton that 
President Madison passed his well known judgment 
upon Alexander Campbell. Mr. Campbell was a 
member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention 
of 1829, ^ body of famous Virginians, numbering 
among its members James Madison and James 
Monroe, ex-presidents of the United States, Chief 
Justice Marshall, John Randolph of Roanoke, 
Philip Dodridge, Littleton W. Tazewell, Judge Abel 
P. Upshur, Chapman Johnson, Benjamin Watkins 
Leigh and Philip P. Barbour. Mr. Campbell served 
on the Committee on Judiciary, and took an active 
part in the debates. As ex-President Madison was 
returning to his home at Montpelier, he stopped the 

39 



40 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

first night with his relative, Col. Pendleton. Early 
the next morning, as they were walking on the 
porch of the Cuckoo House, Col. Pendleton asked 
his distinguished guest what he thought of Alexan- 
der Campbell. Mr. Madison, in reply, spoke in 
very high terms of the ability shown by him in the 
convention. *'But," said he, *'it is as a theologian- 
that Mr. Campbell must be known. It was my 
pleasure to hear him very often as a preacher of the 
gospel, and I regard him as the ablest and most 
original expounder of the Scriptures I have ever 
heard." The distinguished and delightfully reminis- 
cent octogenarian who now presides at the historic 
Cuckoo House, youngest brother of Bethany's late 
president, recalls vividly the appearance of Mr. 
Madison on that visit, *' wearing all the time a close- 
fitting black silk skull cap for rheumatism of the 
scalp," as he said. He also remembers a similar 
visit from Henry Clay, passing in a stage coacb 
from Washington City, who dined with his father — "a 
most entertaining talker, his most conspicuous feature 
being a very big, limber and expansive mouth." 

Uriah Higgason and James Bagby were the early 
preachers in the County of lyouisa. In the Millen- 
nial Harbinger for 1837, is a testimonial under date 
May 14th, commending "Uriah Higgason and Wil- 
liam B. Sims and their amiable families," removed 
to the State of Missouri. Of the former it is said, 
' 'As a teacher of the Christian religion and a pro- 
claimer of the ancient gospel, he has labored 
amongst us for many years with great ability and 
unflinching firmness and with considerable success, 
considering the unparalleled prejudice and unrelent- 



THE TURNING POINT 41 

ing opposition lie had to encounter. ' ' Mr. Sims was 
a deacon in the Gilboa Church who had borne him- 
self "with so much propriety as to have purchased 
for himself an excellent degree and great boldness 
in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." This state- 
ment is made from *' Mount Gilboa, Louisa County,' 
and signed by Madison Pendleton, Peter S. Barret 
William D. Hunter, Francis Johnson, Thomas G 
Noel, Richard Sims, Joseph Sims, Joseph Coates 
Jr., Nelson Walton, Andrew G. Walton and E 
Pendleton. 

In Tune, iSzto, Alexander Campbell attended a 
general meeting of churches which convened at 
Charlottesville. Fifty-six congregations were rep- 
resented. It was on this occasion the distinguished 
reformer addressed the Charlottesville Lyceum, and 
also the Jeffersonian Society of the University of 
Virginia. During these tours in the State, Mr. 
Campbell's daughter, Lavinia, sometimes accompan- 
ied him, and the meeting of W. K. Pendleton and 
Lavinia Campbell was the turning point in the 
young lawyer's career. In October, 1840, they were 
married. The same year Bethany College was pro- 
jected, and Mr. Pendleton became its first Professor 
of Natural Philosophy in 1841. 

The charter of the new institution was procured 
by John C. Campbell from the Virginia Legislature 
in the winter of 1840, erecting and establishing "at 
or near Bethany, in the County of Brooke, in this 
Commonwealth, a seminary of learning for the in- 
struction of youth in the various branches of science 
and literature, the useful arts, agriculture, and the 
learned and foreign languages." The trustees ap- 



42 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

pointed by this act were Alexander Campbell, Albert 
G. Ewing, Samuel Church, Henry Langly, James 
T. McVey, Robert Y. Henley, Samuel Grafton, Wil- 
liam Stewart, Josiah Crumbacker, Adamson Bentley, 
Robert Nicholls, Campbell Tarr, Matthew McKeev- 
er, John Andrews, Robert H, Forrester, Thomas 
Campbell, Robert Richardson and John C. Camp- 
bell. The first subscription — $i,ooo — was from 
Philip B. Pendleton, of Virginia. 

The trustees held their first meeting at Bethany, 
Monday, May ii, 1840. Thomas Campbell was 
called to the chair, and W. F. M. Arny was chosen 
Secretary of the Board. Alexander Campbell was 
appointed Treasurer of Bethany College, and a 
building committee consisting of William Stewart, 
Robert Richardson, Matthew McKeever and Alex- 
ander Campbell was selected. The next meeting 
v/as on Friday, September 18, when Alexander 
Campbell presented a bond for a deed of ten acres 
of land for the use and benefit of Bethany College. 
The building committee was authorized to erect 
such buildings as they deemed necessary, and the 
board proceeded to the election of the President of 
the College. Alexander Campbell was unanimously 
chosen, and on his motion the following additional 
trustees were appointed: Reuben L. Coleman, J. 
Johnson, Buckner H. Payne, Henry Ewing, Joseph 
W. Clay, William Dabney, Charles Somner and I<. 
A. Sandidge. 

Monday, May loth, 1841, the Board of Trustees 
convened in their second annual meeting. Subscrip- 
tions toward the new college were reported aggre- 
gating 111,045, of which $1,405 was cash. At this 



THE TURNING POINT 43 

meeting the President nominated four professors as 
necessary to the commencement of the institution — 
one for Ancient Languages, one for Mathematics, 
and two for Sciences. Two of these are named as 
Robert Richardson, M. D., and W. K. Pendleton, 
Esq., a graduate of the University of Virginia, for 
the departments of the Physical Sciences. The 
other teachers were Charles Stewart and Andrew F. 
Ross, who were appointed to the chairs of Ancient 
Languages and Mathematics. It was resolved to 
open the College the 21st of October, at which time 
the Stevv^ard's Inn would be ready for the occupancy 
of students. E4wiu W. Bakewell was appointed 
steward, and it was resolved unanimously "that the 
boarding, lodging, washing and tuition of a student 
at Bethany College shall be one hundred and fifty 
dollars for the collegiate year from September i to 
July 4, year by year"; and that the "bill of fare for 
the Steward's Inn shall be the same as that of the 
University of Virginia." It will be noted that the 
washing of a student was among the items of ex- 
pense. In a catalogue of one of the most promi- 
nent universities in the country, in recent years, the 
President reported as one of the virtues of its stu- 
dents "their invisibility on the streets." 

In setting forth the prospects of the new college, 
Mr. Campbell says: "Testimonials of a very fair 
moral reputation in all students over ten years old 
are required. Doubtless none will incur the expense 
and mortification of having their sons or wards sent 
home to them because of insubordination to the 
necessary moral and prudential restraint of an insti- 
tution in which all things are to be subject to the 



44 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

supremacy of morality and social virtues. The 
cast of this literary and moral institution is of no 
ordinary dimensions. It comprehends in its designs, 
Preparatory and Elementary Schools for lads from 
seven to fourteen years old; an Academy of Arts 
and Sciences for lads from fourteen and upward -who 
are prepared for it, designed for agriculturists, 
mechanics, manufacturers and merchants whose 
education, besides what is elementary, ought to be 
much more scientific and extensive than is usually 
allowed; a college proper for a very liberal educa- 
tion, both literary and scientific; and a Normal 
School for the training and accomplishing of teach- 
ers for the various departments of both popular and 
liberal education. These four departments are all 
indispensable to the present wants of society. In 
each and all of them, physical and moral education 
must keep pace with the intellectual, and no young 
gentleman be allowed to devote all his energies to 
the mere improvement of intellect, at the expense or 
hazard of his moral and physical constitution. 
These too-much-neglected departments in many 
schools and colleges must have a real and manifest 
conspicuity in this establishment." He speaks of 
the excellent location, asks for one hundred thou- 
sand dollars "for buildings, library, apparatus, en- 
dowment and everything else," and guarantees for 
that sum accommodations for five hundred students 
and more. He wonders at the tardiness and hesi- 
tancy with which many persons approach to aid 
such an undertaking, persons of ample means. 
"Simpleton that I was, I expected some hundred or 
two sons of consolation, real philanthropists, to step 



THE TURNING POINT 45 

forward and subscribe each his one thousand dollars 
and say, 'Go on with this great system of human 
improvement, and if this is not enough, call on us 
again. We will not suffer a few individuals to do 
all; nor a scheme fraught with so much promise to 
fail ; nor v/ill we send you to the poor to raise means 
to educate and ameliorate the condition of the rich.' 
I say, friends, countrymen, philanthropists, send us 
your names, your donations, your subscriptions." 
In August Mr. Campbell announced that the pro- 
fessors appointed at the last meeting of the Board of 
Trustees had all accepted the chairs allotted them, 
and that the Faculty of Bethany College consisted of 
the following: "Mr. A. F. Ross, late Professor of 
New Athens College, Ohio, Professor of Ancient 
I^anguages and Ancient History; Mr. Charles Stew- 
art, of Kentucky, Professor of Algebra and General 
Mathematics; Dr. Robert Richardson, Professor of 
Chemistry, Geology and the kindred sciences; Mr. 
W. K. Pendleton, of the University of Virginia, Pro- 
fessor of Natural Philosophy and such of the natural 
sciences that come not in the course of Dr. R. Rich- 
ardson. Besides a general superintendency of the 
institution, to the President there will be assigned 
Mental Philosophy, Evidences of Christianity, Moral 
and Political Economy." A Professor of English 
Literature, to whom should be assigned Gram- 
mar, Logic, Rhetoric, Elements of Criticism, etc., 
was yet to be appointed, and such tutors as the exi- 
gencies of the institution might require. He speaks 
of the Faculty as mostly young men under thirty 
years of age, of highly respectable attainments, of 
much force of character, of exemplary morals and of 



46 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ardent devotion to science, literature and the ad- 
vancement of education, and states that they will 
deliver their introductory lectures on the second and 
third days of November, when the institution, fully 
organized, will commence its operations. 

In outlining his plans for "a new institution,'* 
October i8, 1839, the President calls it "a literary, 
moral and religious school, or the union of four in- 
stitutions in one — the combination of the family, 
the primary school, the college, and the church in 
one great system of education." "In the establish- 
ment and supervision of it," he says, "it is proba- 
ble, if the Lord will, I shall close all my earthly 
projects. In the first place, the location must be 
entirely rural — in the country, detached from all 
external society, not convenient to any town or place 
of rendezvous — in the midst of forests, fields and 
gardens — salubrious air, pure water — diversified 
scenery, of hills and valleys, limpid brooks and 
meandering streams of rapid flowing water. Such is 
the spot which I have selected. The buildings 
essential to the completion of this institution are the 
steward's inn and dormitories, the family house, 
three mansions for professors, primary school rooms, 
college proper and the church edifice. The stew- 
ard's inn is designed for the boarding and lodging of 
the students in attendance not members of the fam- 
ily house, and for the entertainment of visitors and 
strangers. The family house is designed for a model 
family in which children from seven to fourteen 
shall be admitted and constituted into a family, 
under an experienced and competent paternal and 
maternal government of the highest moral excel- 



THE TURNING POINT 47 

lence. The professors' houses would be private 
dwellings. The primary school rooms would be de- 
tached from the college proper, and arranged with a 
reference to the classes through which children from 
seven to fourteen would necessarily pass as prepara- 
tory to a college or church course. The college 
proper would not materially differ from similar insti- 
tutions, being a collection of rooms for recitation, 
for philosophical apparatus, for libraries, etc. The 
church institution will need more explanation than 
any other. Jewish and Christian history, chronol- 
ogy, ancient geography, ancient manners and cus- 
toms, idioms, ecclesiastical affairs, etc., must there- 
fore become a regular course of lectures and studies. 
We want no scholastic or traditional theology. We 
desire, however, a much more intimate, critical and 
thorough knowledge of the Bible, the whole Bible 
as the Book of God, the Book of I^ife and of human 
destiny than is usually, or, indeed, can be, obtained 
in what are called theological schools. As we make 
the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the 
Bible our creed, our standard of religion, and of all 
moral science, we have no hesitation in saying that 
this institution, from the nursery class upward to 
the church classes, shall make that volume a con- 
stant study. All science, all literature, all nature, 
all art, all attainments shall be made tributary to 
the Bible, and man's ultimate temporal and eternal 
destiny." 

"The church institution," he declares, ''shall, in 
one cardinal point of view, resemble the West Point 
Military School. There it is not the theory alone, 
but military camp, the practice, the daily discipline 



48 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

of the god of war. In this institution it will not be 
the theory of a church — of Bible reading, Bible crit- 
icism, Bible lectures, sermons, church order, Chris- 
tian discipline — but the daily practice of these. 
This church will be in session seven days every 
week. The superintendent of this institution, or 
the professor in attendance, will be bishop pro tem- 
pore of the church. The young men in all readings, 
questions and answers and exercises shall rise and 
speak and act as though they were, as in truth they 
are, members of a particular church met for edifica- 
tion and worship. Immoral and disorderly actions, 
should they ever occur, will be treated here as in 
Christian discipline they ought to be in the house of 
the Lord. Thus will the members of this institution 
be trained for filling any stations in the church of 
their ultimate location to which they may be called 
by the brethren. In one word, the objects of this 
liberal and comprehensive institution will be to 
model families, schools, colleges and churches, ac- 
cording to the Divine pattern shown to us in the 
oracles of reason, of sound philosophy and of Divine 
truth, and to raise up a host of accomplished fathers, 
teachers of schools, teachers of colleges, teachers of 
churches, preachers of the Gospel, and good and 
useful citizens, or whatever the church or the state 
may afterward choose to make of them." 

Such were some of Mr. Campbell's ideals of Chris- 
tian education. The institution opened favorably at 
the time announced, with five professors in the Fac- 
ulty, and a student body of 103 young men, repre- 
senting nine States and Canada. Mr. Pendleton had 
fairly begun his life work. 



CHAPTER V 

BETHANY 

Giving directions coucerning the routes to Beth- 
any College from different points in the Union, Pres- 
ident Campbell says: "Those south of us in Eastern 
Virginia and the Carolinas, either via Baltimore or 
Winchester, will seek the National Road which 
leads to Wheeling; thence sixteen miles up the river 
to Wellsburg, where they will find a conveyance 
seven miles out to the college. Those anywhere in 
the valley of the Mississippi, or on the borders of 
the Ohio, up or down, will find no difficulty in arriv- 
ing at Wellsburg on the bank of the Ohio. Those 
north and east will, either by Lake Erie, seek Cleve- 
land, about one hundred and twenty miles from 
Bethany, via New Lisbon and Wellsville, or by Phil- 
adelphia and Pittsburg. The National Road and 
the Ohio River are the two great thoroughfares 
which at two points are about equidistant from 
Bethany College." This was before the day of rail- 
roads. By stage over the National Pike, or by boat 
on the Ohio, the student reached the little Virginia 
town. By the same means of conveyance that year, 
William Henry Harrison crossed the Alleghanies to 
his inauguration as the ninth President of the 
United States, and John J. Crittenden came up from 
Kentucky to be his Attorney-General; John Bell, 
from Tennessee, to be Secretary of War; Thomas 
Ewing, from Ohio, to be Secretary of the Treasury; 
4 • 49 



50 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and Benton, of Missouri, and Clay, of Kentucky, and 
the other great commoners, traveled over the same 
great National Road to the capital of the nation. It 
will appear, therefore, that Bethany, so far from 
being inaccessible in that day, was right on the 
great national highways, east and west, and north 
and south. Its situation was at the hub of the uni- 
verse. 

Brooke County, West Virginia, is in the narrow 
neck of land lying between Pennsylvania and the 
Ohio River, called the Panhandle. In 1841 there 
was not a licensed liquor saloon in the county. Its 
population was 7,948, and there were but ninety-one 
slaves. Wheeling then had but 7,885 people. 
Wellsburg, the county-seat of Brooke, is beautifully 
situated on the Ohio River sixteen miles above 
Wheeling. It was laid out in 1789 by Charles 
Prather, and originally named Charleston, but after- 
wards called Wellsburg, from Alexander Wells, who 
built a flour warehouse at the point, the first ever 
erected on the Ohio. The first settlers came before 
the Revolution, three brothers, Isaac, George and 
Friend Cox, who built a fort, as a protection against 
the Indians, about a mile above the village. Samuel 
Brady, the famous Indian fighter, was one of its cit- 
izens. Philip Doddridge, a member of Congress, 
who died in Washington in 1832, and who was 
scarcely less famous for his eloquence and great tal- 
ent in Western than Patrick Henry in Eastern Vir- 
ginia, was from Wellsburg. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, 
his brother, an Episcopal clergyman, who wrote a 
work on the Indian V/ars from 1763 to 1783, also 
lived here. Twelve or fifteen miles from Wellsburg, 



BETHANY 51 

on Buffalo Creek, not far from Bethany, was Rice's 
Fort, made of cabins, and a small block bouse, wbich 
was beld successfully by six white men against one 
hundred picked Indian warriors in September, 1782. 
The Mingo Indians frequented this region, and in 
sight of Bethany was I^ogan's Hollow, where the 
celebrated Indian chief was said to have had his 
cabin. 

Bethany is in the county of Brooke, sixteen 
miles from Wheeling, seven from Wellsburg, and 
about thirty-eight from Pittsburg, Describing the 
location, Mr. Campbell said: * 'There is no exag- 
geration in saying that a healthier soil or a purer air 
is not within the United States. Our rich, calcare- 
ous hills, sometimes precipitous, acuminated and ac- 
clivous, occasionally also orbicular, oval and pyram- 
idal; at one time gently sloping by gradual ijndu- 
lations, or rising into bold and craggy prominences, 
clothed with lofty forest timber of great variety and 
stateliness, give to our country not only the most 
delightful scenery, but afford us the most genial cur- 
rents of the purest air and streams and fountains of 
the most pellucid and delicious water. The soil, 
too, is prone to verdure and the finest pasture, as it 
is favorable to all the grains and fruits that 
strengthen and solace man; always promises milk 
and honey, as well as bread and meat, to all that cul- 
tivate it. And if in winter a surly blast from the 
Boreal regions of cold Canada and the American 
lakes should make the leafless forests quail, our 
hills, in benevolent anticipation of the fierce in- 
vader, have richly stored themselves with mineral 
coal, as was the wooden horse with the Greeks, that 



52 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

when carried into our houses gives us the cheerful 
hearth and scatters cold and darkness away." 

He believes there is not a more moral county in 
America than the county of Brooke. "The county- 
seat," he says, "has been a whole year without a 
scene of native intemperance. But two or three 
vagrants in twenty-five years have been sent to the 
penitentiary. While in a slave State, we are almost 
literally without slaves. In all these points of view, 
which indeed are the all-essential points in the loca- 
tion of a great literary and moral institution, we 
could not imagine a more favorable site. It has 
been to me, indeed, often a source of wonder why a 
country so inviting to persons of taste, and so favor- 
able to all the objects of life as this is, at the con- 
gress of the great arteries of this immense Union — 
whither national roads, canals, railways, rivers and 
mineral wealth have tended or are tending, should 
have been so much and so long overlooked as it has 
been." 

No one who has ever visited Bethany will question 
for a moment the justice of Mr. Campbell's descrip- 
tion of its natural beauty and advantages. Every 
old student will recall vividly and with enthusiastic 
delight the approach from the ancient county-seat 
of Wellsburg. Crossing the river in a wheezy little 
ferry-boat, and climbing the river-bank, the stage 
awaits the passenger, and soon he is whirled out of 
the staid old town and along the pike toward this 
Castalian fountain hid away among the hills. The 
Buffalo winds for twenty-one miles its sinuous course 
from Bethany to Wellsburg, and the pike crosses it 
four times in seven miles. The stage soon passes 



BETHANY 53 

tlie first bridge, an old, covered wooden structure, 
made without a bit of iron; then a second, where an 
up-to-date iron thing, not half so interesting as its 
predecessor, in recent years has been thrown across 
the stream; then a third bridge, and Waugh's Mill, 
and the first tunnel through the hill, and then the 
dam and the fourth bridge; then along a magnificent 
valley, and through the second tunnel; then through 
charming meadows, beside the Buffalo, and over the 
hills, until the first "Narrows" is reached, with its 
perils of precipices and its perfect views of green 
undulating ridges, stretching away for miles, and 
fertile fields, and everywhere the meandering and 
beautiful Buffalo; and then the second "Narrows," 
passing the West I<iberty road, and swinging round 
through the old toll-gate, with Point Breeze on the 
right, and the majestic college buildings are in full 
view, and the blessed memories of other years come 
flooding the mind and heart with their benediction. 
It is a ride that is never forgotten. No seven 
miles of roadway in America can show greater 
beauty and variety of scenery; no prospect in Saxon 
Switzerland, or among the Scotch lakes, has a rarer 
charm for the visitor. Whether in winter, behind 
merry sleigh-bells, when the Buffalo is chained by 
the frost; or in spring, when the trees are budding 
on the hillside, and the old creek sings its sweetest 
song; or in summer, when meadows are covered with 
their wealth of bluegrass and growing corn, hills 
verdure-clad, and the glens are fair as some Arcadian 
dell, all shadow, coolness, and the rush of streams, 
save where the sprinkled blaze of noonday falls; or 
in autumn, when the wooded hills are all ablaze with 



54 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

gorgeous color, tlie ripe corn, red apples, and yellow 
pumpkins in the meadows tell of the fruitful soil, 
and the Buffalo sweeps more solemnly in its course 
toward the Ohio and Mississippi, and on to the Gulf — 
whenever the ride is taken the traveler is filled with 
admiration and delight at the picturesque, varied 
and charming landscapes that greet and delight the 
eye at every point of view. Scarcely less memora- 
ble is the ride from Wheeling up the old National 
Road and over the hills by way of West lyiberty. 

Bethany village is not different from the ordinary 
little town among the hills, whose inhabitants use 
soft coal, and are quite content with the ways of 
their fathers. Its main street runs east and west 
from the foot of the college hill to the creek about 
half a mile in distance. The Buffalo winds round 
one side of the bridge, and one street on the south 
side of the town runs parallel with Main street along 
the creek, and another on the north side skirts the 
base of Pendleton Heights. Four streets cross these 
at right angles, and cottages are built at intervals, 
with ample grounds. Crossing the Buffalo at the 
foot of Main street, the road runs to the old mansion 
so long the home of Alexander Campbell, and on 
toward Washington, Pa. Bethanj^ has always been 
the same. There is the same Buffalo, the same 
everlasting hills, the same stately pile of buildings, 
the same consecrated teachers and plodding students 
and kindly townspeople, the same college spirit to 
welcome the old student whenever he comes. It 
does not change with the centuries. The song 
seems to fit it well. 



BETHANY 55 

"On the banks of the old Buffalo, my boys, 
Where old Bethany evermore shall stand; 
For has she not stood since the days of the flood 
On the banks of the old Buffalo?" 

Who may measure the power of natural surround- 
ings in the shaping of character? There is a relig- 
ion in nature, a voice of the great Spirit, that speaks 
to man in earth and air and sky, and there are 
teachers in forests and brooks and hills that must be 
taken into account when summing up the educa- 
tional influences that have entered into any life. 
The physical features of the earth have fixed the 
history of whole nations. Contrast the Swiss among 
their beloved Alps, with the Dutch in their homes, 
snatched from the angry sea; the I,aps among their 
snows, with the South Sea Islanders in the eternal 
glow of tropical suns. "The air is full of sounds," 
says Emerson, "the sky of tokens, the ground is all 
memoranda and signatures, and every object covered 
over with hints which speak to the intelligent." 
What a distinction between the student trained in a 
city school, and one educated in such an atmosphere 
as that of Bethany! Change the circumstances of 
the men, and the men are changed. Had Wendell 
Phillips and Lloyd Garrison been born in Savannah, 
with an inheritance of one hundred slaves apiece, 
and Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens, grown 
up under the shadow of Bunker Hill, who would 
have been the abolitionists, and who the advocates 
of slavery? Had illexander Campbell established 
his institution in New York, or in Cincinnati, in- 
stead of the little Virginia town on the Buffalo, 
what would have been the result upon the spirit and 
success of his religious movement? 



56 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

However obscure and insignificant may seem this 
modest little town, whicli has no place upon the 
map, it has been a center of great things. It is safe 
to say that Alexander Campbell's work among the 
hills of Brooke County, W. Va. , will ultimately re- 
ceive the grateful acknowledgments of the world. 
Strange it seems, indeed, that from so quiet a corner 
an influence should go forth that to-day touches the 
religious life of the whole nation; but out of a street 
riot in Boston grew the nation's political freedom, 
and trivial instances have many times in history 
been pregnant with momentous consequences. Beth- 
any was the home of a man with an idea. The little 
country printing-press of the great reformer caught 
up between its teeth his masterful thoughts, and its 
leaves were thickly sown to all the four winds of 
heaven. He had a message and proclaimed it. He 
was a sort of John the Baptist, preparing the way 
for a united Christendom, a voice crying in the wil- 
derness of sectarian confusion and division. The 
world heard, and the voice has Keen multiplied a 
thousand-fold, until to-day it resounds from sea to 
sea. The debt our twentieth century Christianity 
owes to the movement, begun thus unpretentiously 
and obscurely, can never be estimated. 

It was not the gigantic figure of Campbell alone, 
however, that made Bethany, nor his modest press 
that shook the world of religious thought. The col- 
lege founded by him, and the multiplication of that 
single voice by a thousand voices, pleading the re- 
turn of God's people to the ancient and apostolic 
order of things, have moved society as no single per- 
son, however great, could move it. Evangelists, 



BETHANY 57 

apostles, missionaries and teachers liave gone out 
from this fountain-head, establishing churches and 
missions and schools and colleges, and printing- 
presses, and these in turn have become centers of 
light and leading, molding the thought, and moving 
the lives of hundreds of thousands. Eliminate 
Bethany from the history and work of the 
movement of Mr. Campbell, and what would it 
be? How the streams would narrow and dry 
np! The great and good man to v/hom, more 
than to any other in the wonderful nineteenth 
century, where God placed him, the whole world of 
Christendom owes a debt, was far-sighted when he 
laid the foundations of an institution of learning 
among the Virginia hills. He knew how mightily 
it would increase the power of his plea. He was not 
mistaken. 

And in all the great work of this school of the 
prophets, W. K. Pendleton's genius was felt from 
the beginning. His accurate scholarship, his clear 
and logical thinking, his polished oratory, his grace 
and elegance as a writer, his gifts as a teacher and 
administrator, his character as an ideal gentleman 
and Christian, have left an impress upon Bethany 
and Bethany's sons which must endure for all time. 
Of all its history and of all its product, he might 
say, as Virgil makes ^neas say to Dido of the Siege 
of Troy : ' ^Et quorum pars magna fid. ' ' 



CHAPTER VI 

FIRST THINGS 

The history of an educational institution presents 
a fascinating page. Take Oxford or Cambridge in 
England, Harvard or William and Mary in Amer- 
ica. The story of one of these institutions is largely 
the story of the land in which it has lived. Cam- 
bridge, for example, began with four monks teach- 
ing sciences in a hired barn to such as came to 
learn. There are now thirty-two colleges, with 
thousands of students, and its oldest college, Peter- 
house, celebrated its sixth hundredth anniversary 
in 1884. There is little doubt that students resorted 
to the banks of the Cam as early as the seventh cen- 
tury, for St. Augustine founded schools, or places of 
retirement and leisure for study, as indicated by the 
word scholee^ leisure, at a very early period at York 
and Canterbury. So, from the beginning of the 
English speaking race, this great center of educa- 
tional spirit and power has molded English thought 
and purpose. In the early times the colleges were 
more like modern schools, and the students were 
mainly boys. In the chambers the masters and 
seniors had "standing beds," under which the 
"trundle beds" of the undergraduates were pushed 
for the day. Students were required to converse in 
Hebrew, Latin and Greek. As early as five in the 
morning they assembled in chapel, heard lec- 
tures at six, and at seven in the evening in the col- 

58 





WELLSBURG AND BE'J'HANY IN THE 40's. 



FIRST THINGS 59 

lege hall, in the presence of all the students, pun- 
ishment was administered for all offenses — and their 
number in the good old days was legion — the pun- 
ishment being applied with sticks, sacredly kept for 
the purpose. Chaucer, Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, 
Bentley, Dryden, Coke, Barrow, Byron, Porson, 
Macaulay, Milton, Tennyson, Lightfoot, Thackeray, 
Ben Jonson, Jeremy Taylor, Wilberforce, Words- 
worth, Rowland Hill, Lord Palmerston, William 
Pitt and Oliver Cromwell are a few of the illustrious 
names of Cambridge men. Cambridge has gradu- 
ated the great poets; Oxford, the great statesmen of 
England, though the last three named were all 
alumni of Cambridge. Such has been the influence 
of this great school in the insignificant agricultural 
town on the banks of the Cam, a stream by no 
means equal to the classic Buffalo. 

In like manner, William and Mary, the second 
oldest institution in the United States, in the ob- 
scure little village of Williamsburg, Va., exerted a 
vast influence in laying the foundation and in the 
building up of this nation. Forth from its halls 
went signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
Presidents, Justices of the Supreme Court, Diplo- 
mats, Senators and Representatives. George Wash- 
ington was its Chancellor, and such men as Thomas 
Jefferson, James Monroe, John Tyler, Chief Justice 
Marshall, Peyton Randolph, John Randolph of 
Roanoke, and Winfield Scott were among its alumni. 
*'"What course is taken about instructing the people 
within your government in the Christian religion, 
and what provision is there made for the paying of 
your ministry?" was the question put to Sir William 



6o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, by the Lords' Com- 
missioners of tlie Foreign Plantations in 1670. 
*'Tlie same course," answered the sturdy old Royal- 
ist, "that is taken in England out of the towns — 
every man according to his ability instructing his 
children. We have forty-eight parishes, and our 
ministry are well paid, and b)^ my consent should be 
better if they would pray oftener and preach less. 
But of all other commodities so of this. The worst 
are sent us, and we had fevi^ that we could boast of 
since the persecution in Cromwell's tyranny drove 
divers worthy men hither. But I thank God there 
are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall 
not have these hundred years, for learning has 
brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the 
world, and printing has divulged them and libels 
against best government. God keep us from both." 
However, the Virginians persevered until they 
got the "colledge." The charter was granted 1693, 
the only American college that ever received its 
charter from the crown under seal of the Privy 
Council, and the only college, English or American, 
that ever received a grant of arms from the Herald's 
College. "For promoting the study of true philoso- 
phy, languages and other good arts and sciences," 
the charter read, "and for propagating the pure gos- 
pel of Christ, our only Mediator, to the praise and 
honor of Almighty God." It had six professors and 
an average of sixty students; a school of divinity, 
one of philosophy, which included mathematics, a 
grammar school for instruction in ancient languages, 
and an Indian school. It was established in a little 
inland town which, at its best days, never had over 



FIRST THINGS 6i 

two hundred houses. But what did it give the na- 
tion? Four signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, Harrison, Braxton, Nelson and Wythe; three 
Presidents, Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler; seven cabi- 
net officers, fifteen United States Senators, twenty 
members of Congress, seventeen Governors of States, 
the president of the first Congress, and the man who 
drafted the Constitution of the United States, thirty- 
seven judges, and among them the great Chief Jus- 
tice, leaders in the army and navy, in colleges and 
schools, divines, lawyers, physicians — a great host. 
It is a noble chapter in the nation's life. Virginia 
has been called the Mother of States and of Presi- 
dents, but the college of William and Mary, the 
Alma Mater of Statesmen, is only another name for 
Virginia. 

Bethany's beginnings were very modest. Novem- 
ber, 1841, the institution entered upon its work. 
Twenty classes were formed, the first meeting at 
6:30 in the morning, Mr. Campbell walking from 
his home three-quarters of a mile before daylight 
every morning to lecture on sacred history. He 
speaks of the students as diligent and orderly, one- 
third of them being professors of religion. The fac- 
ulty at the opening announced a series of by-laws, 
some of which are interesting. *' College hall shall 
be open every Lord's day morning for religious wor- 
ship and instruction, to be performed by respectable 
ministers of various denominations. Pious young 
men preparing for the ministry in any of the relig- 
ious denominations shall be permitted to attend 
college without charge of tuition. No student shall 
introduce, keep or use within the precincts of the 



62 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

college, v/eapons or arms of any kind, or gun-pow- 
der, or keep a servant, liorse or dog. No student 
shall permit any disturbing noises in his room, or 
introduce, keep or use any spirituous or vinous 
liquors, or any cards, dice or implements of gaming. 
Smoking cigars, or any other use of tobacco, is at 
all times strictly forbidden within the college pre- 
cincts. The use of musical instruments is inter- 
dicted before dinner, after ten o'clock at night, and 
on Lord's days. The bells shall be rung every 
morning throughout the collegiate year at dawn. 
The students shall rise at this signal. The dress of 
the students shall be uniform and plain, a dark gray 
or black color, at a price not exceeding six dollars a 
yard. It is recommended by the trustees that Ken- 
tucky jeans be selected as the cloth for common 
wearing apparel. Punishments shall be reproof by 
a professor, or by the president, privately, or in the 
presence of the class, or of the whole school, rusti- 
cation, dismission, and expulsion. Rustication shall 
be a suspension of college privileges and removal 
from the precincts tc some retired place for a term 
of not less than one nor more than four weeks. Dis- 
mission shall be discharge and removal from the 
college and entire severance cf all college rights and 
privileges for the session. Expulsion shall be the 
canceling of all college honors, rights and privileges 
forever. The steward is charged with responsibility 
for the cleanliness of the inn and grounds, and the 
practice of keeping or raising hogs within the pre- 
cincts is forbidden. The steward shall not furnish 
luxurious fare to the students, but the fare shall be 
plentiful, plain, served neatly and well dressed, of 



FIRST THINGS 63 

good and wholesome viands. He shall furnish one 
candle for every two students till bed hour; clean 
sheets and pillow-cases at least once a fortnight, and 
clean towels at least twice a week, and the clothes 
to be washed for each student shall not exceed nine 
pieces in winter and twelve in summer per week." 
The president declares later, for the accomplish- 
ment of the purposes of the institution, three things 
of primary importance were sought: a "rural loca- 
tion; enlightened, energetic and moral professors, 
and youth as uncontaminated as the times would 
afford." He confesses some disappointment. "Some, 
it would seem, have either wholly mistaken the 
character of their sons," he writes, "or the charac- 
ter and intentions of our institution. They seem to 
have regarded it as a sort of penitentiary institution, 
to which youth of either doubtful or desperate char- 
acter may be sent in the hope of reformation. We 
have already had some cases of severe discipline in 
our infant institution. Two have been recently ex- 
pelled, some dismissed for the present session, and 
several rusticated for violation of its by-laws and 
ordinances." In July, 1842, Mr. Campbell an- 
nounces subscriptions of $17,688 toward the college, 
of which $7,923 had been paid, and says: "It is 
but two years since the first brick was molded for 
the erection of Bethany College. During this time 
the college proper, four stories, 83 by 45, a stew- 
ard's inn, 107 feet by ^6 feet, four stories, have 
been completed, and one wing of a mansion house, 
73 feet by 24 feet, two stories, will be completed by 
September 21st." Accommodations will be ready 
for 150 students by the opening of the next session. 



64 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Two literary societies have been formed. The 
buildings erected and furnished, together with those 
in progress, will cost ^23,000. Some changes are 
made in the Board of Trustees: John Mendel, John 
Atkinson, Basil Wells, Samuel Nuckols and Joseph 
Wasson being added, and it was resolved: "That 
W. K. Pendleton is hereby appointed bursar and 
collector of the tuition, boarding and matriculation 
fee of the students, and bursar of the private funds 
of the students," and is required to file a bond in 
the penalty of ^5,000, conditioned for the faithful 
performance of the duties of his said office. 

The catalogue for the second session announces 
156 matriculates, representing eleven States. Dr. 
Robert Richardson is appointed by the faculty to 
frame a device for the college seal, and submits his 
conclusions. "I have found some difficulty," he 
says, "in selecting emblems. Upon the whole I 
propose that a tripod be represented supporting the 
two volumes. Truth and Science; and upon these be 
placed a quiver of arrows and a bow with the motto 
above, '^Pharetram Veritas.^ sed arciim scientia donat.'' 
The two volumes representing Truth and Science, 
in which divine power, wisdom and goodness are 
equally displayed, may fitly rest upon the tripod 
which indicates that they are divine oracles, and is 
also suitable because used by the ancients as an em- 
blem of steadiness and constancy. It is a familiar 
and beautiful figure to represent Truth as employ- 
ing arrows to pierce her enemies and extend her tri- 
umphs; but as arrows are useless without a bow, 
iust as truths are without language to utter them, or 
science to guide them, Science may be truly said to 



FIRST THINGS 65 

furnish the bow by which the arrows of truth are 
directed and impelled. The motto above will clearly 
explain the emblems, but should it be regarded as 
rendering the meaning too obvious, it may be 
omitted, simply placing in lieu of it upon the vol- 
umes respectively, ^Veritas et scientia.'^ I should 
like to have a palm tree upon one side overshadow- 
ing the whole. The palm is the emblem of victory 
as well as of physical and mental vigor, and has also 
an etymological relation to the word Bethany, which 
by some is rendered 'the house of dates' — the fruit 
of the palm." 

The college commencement, July 4, 1843, the 
second anniversary, is attended by fifteen hundred 
people. It begins with prayer and music at 9:30, 
and the reading of the Declaration of Independence, 
and the regular exercises "continued for five hours 
without intermission, in which time there were de- 
livered seven speeches, among them a valedictory 
by the president, and a Latin and a Greek ode." 
The addresses are highly commended. The audi- 
ence through the protracted session is described as 
"attentive and delighted." No degrees were con- 
ferred, but there were a few graduates in the differ- 
ent schools: Robert B. Beasley, Robert T. Bryan, 
John A. Dearborn, James S. Fall, Henry F. McKen- 
ney, William W. McKenney, James Clifton Stone, 
Samuel "W. Clark, David King, Flavins J. Robinson, 
Robert D. Woods, W. H. C. Hagan, and H. J. 
Vivion. Messrs. Stone, Fall, Dearborn and William 
Ferrell received the degree of B. A. the following 
year, and constituted the first fruits of Bethany Col- 
lege. Philip S. Fall, of Kentucky, was at this sec- 
5 



66 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ond anniversary added to the Board of Trustees, and 
"Joseph Bryant and his lady appointed patron and 
matron of the family mansion." 

Mr. Campbell's address to this first graduating 
class is entitled "Valedictory Address to the Stu- 
dents of Bethany College." He emphasizes three 
points: First, there are no holidays in the School 
of Virtue. All her days are holy days, and there is 
no vacation in her school. Her sessions are not for 
months nor years, but for life. On her altars the 
fire forever burns. Her discipline must be habitual. 
Second, no man can excel in earth or heaven, in 
time or to eternity, without industry. Talent and 
industry are the two main pillars of all human great- 
ness. A thousand become great and good by indus- 
try for one who is either great or good by genius or 
natural birth. There are no drones in Virtue's 
hive. Neither loungers nor loafers are found in the 
porticoes of literature, science or virtue. Industry, 
however, is not pre-eminently worthy of regard and 
cultivation because of its iudispensability to the 
acquisition of learning, wealth or fame, but because 
no man can be strictly moral without it, or emi- 
nently honorable, useful and happy but in the con- 
tinued practice of it. Third, remember, wherever 
you go, that you have been students of Bethany Col- 
lege. If not the first fruits, you are either the buds 
or blossoms of her future hope. She is struggling 
into life; and as she is ambitious to be distinguished 
not merely for her literary and scientific standing 
amongst the American colleges, but for her supreme 
regard to moral culture and moral eminence, you 
will be inspected with a jealous eye by her friends, 



FIRST THINGS 67 

and also by her enemies, if any such she has. 
Honor her by your virtue. 

Trustees and faculty were alike determined to 
raise a high moral standard for Bethany, and no less 
than thirteen students were dismissed during this 
second session, and nearly the same number pro- 
scribed from returning. Of the latter some were 
dealt with "for the simple sin of indolence and idle- 
ness." September i, 1843, ^^^ college entered upon 
its third session under most favorable auspices. 

The early history of Bethany is thus dwelt upon 
at some length to indicate the foundations upon 
which President Pendleton afterward built so faith- 
fully. His great work was achieved here, and no 
sketch of him would be complete without some ac- 
count of the beginnings of the school of learning 
over which he presided so long and with such 
marked ability. The man and the institution are 
inseparably associated. 



CHAPTER VII 

1840-1846 

This is the period of Mr. Pendleton's first mar- 
ried life. He met lyavinia Campbell in Charlottes- 
ville when a student in the University in 1838, as 
she accompanied her father on his tours through 
Virginia that year. When a student he made his 
home with his aunt, Mrs. Lucy Pendleton Vowles. 
While fond of books he also took great pleasure 
in the society of young ladies, and was a general 
favorite. Lavinia Campbell was a young woman 
of rare personal beauty, charming manners and 
brilliant conversational gifts. Devoted to her father, 
she showed unusual skill in discussing Bible sub- 
jects and in defending the doctrinal positions held 
by Mr. Campbell. At the time of her visit to 
Charlottesville, Mr. Pendleton had been ill, and 
was, as yet, unable to leave the house. His friends 
among the students, dropping in to see him from 
time to time, brought glowing accounts of the 
beautiful Miss Campbell, and condoled with him 
on his enforced absence from the places where they 
had the privilege of meeting her. "Nevermind," 
was his reply, "I shall soon be well, and I will cut 
you all out yet," which he did as soon as he entered 
the field. October 14, 1840, they were married. 
The marriage took place in the old family sitting 
room in the old part of the Bethany mansion — the 
room which afterwards became the sleeping room in 



I 840- I 846 69 

which Alexander Campbell died. Warwick Martin 
performed the ceremony. The bridal trip was to 
Cuckoo, Va, 

From the time of his marriage Mr. Campbell 
earnestly and stronglj/- urged Mr. Pendleton to join 
him in the founding of Bethany College. Before 
him, no doubt, was a brilliant career at the bar. 
Had he remained in Virginia and applied himself 
to his chosen profession he might have become one 
of the foremost men of the nation. With an apt- 
ness for statecraft and commanding ability as a 
leader, together with the noblest graces of the born 
and cultured gentleman, and the sagacity and 
caution of the most accomplished diplomat, he 
would have honored the Senate or graced the Court 
of St. James. Nor was he without a taste for 
politics. Fowler, the phrenologist, said to him on 
the occasion of a visit to his office in New York, 
"You are in politics?" "No," was the answer. 
"Well, it is pretty hard for you to keep out of 
it," was the comment. That he had at all times 
a keen interest in the public good is evident through- 
out his life, but although he did love the science of 
government and its practical workings, he never ex- 
pressed a regret at his choice, nor is it likely that he 
ever indulged one. He entered the field of education 
and of religion, and to this calling bent all his 
energies. 

Mrs. Pendleton was next to the youngest of Mr. 
Campbell's five daughters. Her father married the 
second time when she was ten years of age. The 
second Mrs. Campbell always spoke of her with 
warmest affection. Her remarkable intellectual and 



70 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

physical endowments attracted equally men and 
women, old and young. Thoroughly in sympathy 
with her father's work, she accompanied him in his 
extended tours, and aided him in many ways. In 
person, she was a little above medium height. Her 
hair was dark chestnut, and worn, as was the fashion 
of that period, in long ringlets, falling straight to 
the neck on either side of the face. Her forehead 
was broad, the eyebrows delicately penciled, and 
eyes large and full of varying expression, in color a 
warm, soft gray; a clear brunette complexion. 
Her intellectual and spiritual graces, however, were 
her chief charms. When the young professor and 
his wife took up their abode at Bethany they oc- 
cupied rooms in the old inn until the home was 
built on the hill. A daughter was born to them at 
the Bethany Mansion, September 2, 1841, and called 
Campbellina. This was the beloved Miss Cammie — 
the present gracious and gifted professor of modern 
languages in Bethany College. Mrs. Pendleton had 
the genius of home, of hospitality. She was thor- 
oughly womanly. When the opportunities of wife 
and mother came these sufficed. A few of her 
letters, written when the child came into the home, 
are full of its baby history. 

The Pendleton home was built in a wheat field 
now known as "Pendleton Heights." Originally 
the place was known as the "Hill of Flowers." 
Mr. Pendleton was very fond of flowers. In one of 
his letters to his mother after his wife's death, he 
says, "You see I have named my place after her. 
Mount Lavinium." His letters before this are dated 
simply Bethany. In a letter to his mother. May 18, 



I 840-1 846 71 

1848, lie tells her he has a magnificent flower garden 
under way, fifty feet square, in which he has planted 
nearly a hundred varieties of flower seed. His 
love of nature was the rarest blending of an equal 
interest in the works of the Creator, both for that 
in them which appeals to our sense of the sublime 
or beautiful, and for their scientific aspect, that is, 
the laws under which they have their being. He 
could never encounter the smallest plant with which 
he did not already have an intimate acquaintance 
that he did not bring it to the house, and at the 
earliest moment of leisure analyze it, ever afterwards 
recognizing it as a familiar little friend known by 
name. Charles Darwin said toward the close of his 
life that he had devoted himself so exclusively to 
scientific investigations, to the neglect of all other 
possibilities of intellectual development in himself, 
that he had finally lost his capacity to read even the 
highest in literature. He could find absolutely no 
pleasure in Shakespeare. And he bewailed this 
pass to which he had come, and uttered a warning 
to other younger workers who might be tempted to 
drift toward such a desert shore. We would not 
claim for Mr. Pendleton the kind of knowledge that 
is alone possible from such consecration as Darwin's 
to investigation in one set of things; but that he 
knew his environment, geological, mineral, botani- 
cal, agricultural, etc., in a way that may properly 
be called thorough. 

The Pendleton house was large in the beginning; 
square, with a wide hall through the center, and 
double parlors on the left of the front entrance. On 
the rieht was the sittinof room. A cross hall divided 



72 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

this sitting room from the family sleeping room. 
Near this room door was the landing of the stairway 
which led down to the basement, in which were 
dining room, kitchen, pantries, servant's room, 
laundry, etc. The dining room was very large, 
probably twenty feet square, two doors opening 
toward the college were of glass, and opened upon 
a broad flagstone area, from which at the south 
corner steps led up to the level of the yard. Often in 
early days the dining room was used as the family 
sitting room on winter evenings. It was the scene of 
many delightful social functions. From the begin- 
ning the Pendleton home was the center of a bound- 
less welcoming of equally the home friends and 
strangers, and to the college student it was always a 
seat of wide-open hospitality. The stone area before 
the dining room was a delicious place on summer 
mornings. The house shaded it when the trees were 
not yet tall enough, and here the family gathered 
for the supreme delight of listening to the reading 
of some favorite book. To listen or read aloud 
was Mr. Pendleton's relaxation. Few visitors at 
the Pendleton house will ever forget this delightful 
feature of its entertainment. As these words are 
written, the voice of its accomplished host falls upon 
the ear, reading for the first time, Hale's "Man 
Without a Country." Mr. Pendleton read aloud 
with fine effect, and listened with magnetic appre- 
ciation to the reading of another. In this remote 
country place, shut out in a measure by the diffi- 
culty of reaching it from what is called the world, 
the means of entertaining the guests, of which the 
college attracted so many, was chiefly social reading. 



I 840-1846 73 

and it is fair to say no one, even though he may- 
have chanced to come v/ith a good rampart of in- 
difference to literature, ever left the Pendleton home 
after a short sojourn without having been aroused to 
genuine interest in some writer, to know whom is 
worth while. There was always some reading 
going on in that house^ The audience came and 
went, but the book continued. Sometimes Mr. 
Pendleton would begin to read with a room full, and 
finish to an audience quite as large, but entirely 
different. One at a time tliey would rise and go out 
to attend to various matters; perhaps they would 
return, or perhaps others would take their places, 
but the reading went on. Only once in the memory 
of the family did they observe his patience ruffled at 
the liberties they took with him. It was not that 
they were not interested, but they looked upon the 
reading as men do on the sunshine and air — -bless- 
ings so abundant they can afford to neglect them. 
This habit of reading, and of always reading the 
best books, was not only cultivated by Mr. Pendle- 
ton, but encouraged in others, and the children in 
his home remember with great pride when first per- 
mitted to sit up and listen to such v/orks as Macbeth 
and Hamlet. 

Mr. Pendleton persuaded his wife to attend, with 
her father and sister Clarinda, the Rice debate in 
1843. Margaret Campbell, afterward wife of John 
O. Ewing, also came with P. S. Fall from Nash- 
ville, where she was attending school. She was the 
first daughter of the second Mrs. Campbell. Mr. 
Campbell writes from lycxington, Kentucky, No- 
vember 13, "Lavinia is very homesick. I think it 



74 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

will be very liard for her to get along to the end of 
the debate. Clarinda is also homesick. I never 
saw such a set of homesick children as I have got." 
In a letter, December i8, of the same year, from 
Clarinda at Bethany to Margaret, returned to school 
in Nashville, she said at the close, "Mr. Pendleton 
left yesterday for Cincinnati to be gone three weeks. 
Some one was obliged to go down or the debate 
would never be published, and no one so suitable as 
Brother William could be found. Sister Lavinia is 
in great distress, of course, and I have come over to 
stay during his absence. She is now writing to 
him, although he only left yesterday." 

Old students greatly admired Mrs. Pendleton for 
her beauty, vivacity, her kindness and winning 
manner, and speak of her with warm-hearted admi- 
ration. One of the first class recalls a habit of the 
young men at that time of carrying very slender 
canes which they handled most delicately, and she 
was asked what she thought of the practice. "I 
always think the cane indicates weakness, either of 
the body or the head," was her answer, and from 
that hour the canes disappeared. Mrs. Pendleton 
was a skilled horsewoman, graceful and fearless, 
and with one foot in the stirrup would leap without 
assistance into the saddle. She was fond of the 
Vandyke collar then in vogue, and wore a riding 
habit of dark green broadcloth with Vandyke collar 
of black velvet. Her temperament was sunny. She 
loved life. She had a taste for rich and pretty 
clothes, and warm colors. Mr. Pendleton's taste 
was like hers. Having an artist's eye for harmony 
in tints, he often did the shopping, and never se- 



I 840-1 846 75 

lected a color or combination of colors that was not 
becoming to the particular complexion that it was 
to be worn with. Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton went to 
Niagara in the summer of 1845, taking Campbellina 
with them. This place is the daughter's first dis- 
tinct recollection. She can not recall her mother's 
personal appearance, though the tones of her voice 
seem to come to her when she remembers, as she 
can distinctly, her tender, loving words and ca- 
resses. 

May 29, 1846, Mrs. Pendleton passed to the high- 
er and eternal life. She died of a lingering form of 
consumption. Her health was delicate from the 
time of her marriage, but she- had a bouyancy of 
spirit and equanimity of mind that kept her from 
seeming an^^thing that is suggested by the word 
"invalid," until near the close of her life. Shortly 
before her death she said to her mother, as she sat 
by her bedside, drawing back her sleeve from her 
worn white arm, "Mother, did you ever think that 
I would come to this, and yet be resigned?" She 
had loved life, she had been too much a part of the 
joy of life for others not to have felt that it was 
worth clinging to; but on the other hand, the glory 
and beauty and love of the life eternal had been as 
real to her vision as to that of her father, and in the 
fullness of the blessing of the gospel of peace she 
rested. 

Mr. Campbell writes this brief obituary in the 
June Harbinger: "Lavinia, wife of Professor W. K. 
Pendleton, and fourth daughter of Alexander and 
Margaret Campbell, born at Bethany, Va., January 
17, 1818, baptized in her eleventh year, and mar- 



76 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ried in her twenty-third, departed this life in the 
hope of a blissful immortality on the 29th of May 
last, in her twenty-ninth year. She, in common 
with her deceased sisters, inherited from an excel- 
lent mother a highly intellectual and moral, though 
a very delicate physical, constitution. Being much 
and long afflicted, her mind and Christian experi- 
ence were greatly enlarged. She attained a ripeness 
of faith, and a fullness of experience to which few of 
her years attain. With great patience and resigna- 
tion she waited for the hour of her release, which 
she met with great composure and a joyful acquies- 
cence. She has left a devoted husband and only 
daughter and many relations and friends to sympa- 
thize with each other in their common bereavement, 
but to rejoice that while to them her death has been 
a temporary loss, to her it has been an everlasting 
gain." 

A touching tribute also appears in the August is- 
sue of the Harbinger, signed W. K. P., under the 
caption "The Dead Sometimes Speak to the Liv- 
ing." "Our kind readers," he vmtes, "will excuse 
the intermission in our labors, which, for the last 
month, we have taken, and forgive me if while 
borne down by the heaviest of all earthly afflictions 
I have not been able to do my duty. The hand of 
the Lord has indeed been heavy upon me, and death 
has despoiled me of a 'husband's crown.' 'Twere 
useless to tell others what she was to me, or in this 
paragraph to linger over the loved worth that to me 
seemed perfection. Yet I could wish that all who, 
as she was, may be wife or mother, could know her 
life that they might imitate her example. 



I 840-1 846 77 

"This is a valuable lesson, and right dearly have 
I learned it. Little did I think how much I needed 
it. We fancy ourselves too often ready to submit to 
the will of our God when we are not. 'Tis only 
when the strongest ties of the soul are rent, and the 
heart is left bleeding and desolate — too much torn to 
feel the promises of hope or too much disconcerted 
to have them — when in an unexpected moment we 
are made to halt upon the unguarded castle of the 
mind and feel its foundation tremble, that we can 
realize v/liat it is to bend our will to His, and merge 
in the calm resignation of contented faith, the more 
turbulent passions of aspiring hope. It is the lot of 
all, perhaps, at some period in life to experience this 
trial, and to me that period is past. The strongest 
hopes of my life have been swept from me, and if, in 
the first experience of the bitter privation, the feel- 
ing of regret got the better of my sense of duty, I 
trust it is so no more. She is gone, and with her 
the fond hopes that were bound up in her life; but 
as a guardian angel we still may commune with her 
and love her, rejoice that her doom is over, and be 
happy in the faith that her pure spirit is in a 
more congenial sphere. 

*'We have long since learned to condemn the ex- 
travagant eulogies heaped upon the dead; and will 
not, therefore, trust ourselves to speak of one to whose 
faults, if she had any, we were always so blind, and 
whose virtues, if we would, we could not find ade- 
quate words to praise. Still, if Paul could array be- 
fore the Hebrews the bright retinue of those who all 
died in the faith, and recall their example for the 
imitation of the living, it could not be otherwise 



78 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

than useful for those she has left behind her, pro- 
fessing the same hope which animated her, even 
when the dew of the grave was damp on her brow, 
to tell them some of the triumphs of her faith, and 
show them how the lessons of the father and 
the mother, given from the good text book of God, 
taught her both to feel and to act as well in life as 
in death. But this again, is no privilege to me. I 
should be too partial a witness, and the really 
too feeble power of any language I could command 
would seem the natural, but strained and extrav- 
agant effort of a bereaved heart. In the memory of 
her friends then, numerous and dear as ever cher- 
ished affection, let her virtues live. In Jesus she hid 
all her fear and covered all her unworthiness before 
God, and from Him shall she receive the reward of 
her untrembling faith." 

On a simple slab over her remains in the Camp- 
bell burying ground are these words: "Beautiful 
in person, pure in heart, warm in her affections, ar- 
dent in her mind and ever ready to do good, her 
friends might well have prayed the good Lord to 
lend her a little longer to soothe and lighten the 
sorrows of earth; but He has taken her where there 
is fullness of joy, and though we raise this stone to 
her memory, we know she sleeps not here, but 
rejoices as an angel in the presence of God." 





BETHANY CHURCH AND CAMPBELL'S STUDY. 



CHAPTER VIII 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COLI.EGE 

At a meeting of the Trustees of Bethany August 
13, 1845, it was resolved, "That for the ensuing 
year it is expedient that there should be added to 
the offices of the institution a Vice-Presidency — the 
duties of the incumbent of which shall be to aid the 
President in the general duties of a superintendent 
of the institution, and in his absence to attend to all 
such duties in person, without any additional sal- 
ary." Whereupon Prof. Pendleton was appointed 
Vice-President for the ensuing year. This was the 
beginning of his long service as the immediate asso- 
ciate of President Campbell in his educational 
labors. Necessarily the President was absent from 
the college for extended periods often, in his preach- 
ing tours through the States, in his missionary ser- 
vices, holding his great debates, in meeting in- 
cessant demands upon him for lectures and ad- 
dresses. At such times the responsibility, of con- 
ducting the institution devolved upon Mr. Pendle- 
ton. He was filling the chair of Natural Philoso- 
phy, Astronomy, Intellectual Philosophy, Political 
Economy, Geology and Zoology, and would also 
share with the rest of the faculty in filling Mr. 
Campbell's place in teaching Sacred History, Moral 
Philosophy, Natural Religion and the Evidences of 
Christianity. His task was by no means an easy 
one. The college was largely attended and doing 

79 



8o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

splendid service, and its foundations, broad and 
deep and strong, were being laid for all coming time. 
At tbe same meeting of the Trustees, Prof. Stew- 
art resigned the chair of Mathematics, and James P. 
Mason was chosen to fill the vacancy. The session 
of this year registered 123 from fourteen States. In 
the number, respectability and general moral stand- 
ing of the students, the institution was steadily ad- 
vancing. At the fourth commencement, July 4, 
1845, ^^^ B. A. degree was conferred on ten young 
men, among them William Baxter, Hiram Christo- 
pher and T. C. McKeever, and the honorary degree 
of A. M. on Prof. Mason. First and second honors 
are announced in the various schools and classes. 
Mr. Pendleton writes in the Harbinger: "The cause 
of education, like almost every other important 
cause, needs to be long and laboriously plead before 
its claims shall be fully appreciated or even partially 
listened to. It is to the Church and to the benevo- 
lence of individuals that we are indebted for almost 
every efficient provision we have for elevating and 
pressing forward the standard of education. Count 
up our colleges, and trace their origin, and in nine 
cases out of ten you will find some religious denomi- 
nation has, either by legislation, enactment or 
otherwise, founded and sustained them. The prop 
and support of the whole fabric of education is the 
Church, not always as an organized representative 
body, acting by levies and contributions laid by 
sy nodical or associated action, but through its indi- 
vidual members, those pure and noble spirits whose 
generosity has been quickened by fire from the altar 
of eternal life, and whose consciousness of responsi- 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE 8i 

bility has been enlarged by the apprehension of the 
gospel. 

*'To such Bethany College has made her appeals, 
and though occasionally receiving a helping hand 
from others, it has been mainly by such that she 
has been able to spring into life, and buffet success- 
fully the winds and waves of four successive ses- 
sions. Without endowment, patronage, attractions 
of splendid edifices, or the allurements of a popular 
and much frequented location, she has resolutely 
stepped forth upon the theater of collegial emula- 
tion, and invited a trial of her powers and skill to 
be useful. With many difficulties to contend 
against — with poverty within and opposition from 
without — she has steadily held her course onward in 
the full confidence that in order to win she had but 
to deserve the patronage of the public. Nor in this 
has she been disappointed. The report of her 
friends everywhere is that the public are pleased, 
and its manifestations are seen in the growing num- 
ber of matriculates. Still, she is not in all respects 
as she should be, and the same liberality which sus- 
tained her in infancy is looked to with confidence 
for the means of her future strength. It is believed 
that Bethany College has yet friends who feel it 
their duty to lend a helping hand to her whenever 
they shall be convinced of her ability to effect the 
great end of human improvement in accordance with 
a sound, rational and moral system, and that they 
have only been waiting till they could feel satisfied 
that a scheme so plausible and beautiful in theory 
could be made really efficient in practice; in other 
words, that the experiment of a college located in 

6 



82 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the country, with no claims but those of literature 
and science to fascinate students, and based upon a 
system of the most rigid and uncompromising moral- 
ity, could be sustained and supported in a commu- 
nity where the whims and caprices of the students 
are too often consulted by the parent more than his 
true interest, and the untaught and blinded judg- 
ment of boys taken as the rule and standard for the 
action of men. To all such we now with confidence 
appeal, and with the history of four years in our 
hands challenge their patronage." 

Rethinks "the most timid and cautious philan- 
thropist can no longer doubt the ability of Bethany 
College to sustain herself." He speaks of the "un- 
requited and almost gratuitous labors of her faculty." 
He declares "suitable buildings, costly but necessary 
apparatus, and a large and well-selected library are 
essential to a great institution." He recites what 
Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois and other States have 
done — "In the true spirit of a broad philanthropy, 
looking to our capacities for good and not to our 
geographical or territorial position," He concludes: 
"We look with confidence for other expressions of 
public good will, and appeal to the patrons of edu- 
cation everywhere to allow Bethany College to be 
the humble, though faithful, agent in promoting the 
best ends of human life — a preparation thorough 
and perfect, in consonance and harmony with the 
genius and destiny of our race, of the sons or wards 
they may have to educate for the discharge of the 
duties soon to devolve upon them as citizens, respon- 
sible to society, and creatures amenable to God." 

This was the first of many dignified and earnest 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE 83 

appeals in behalf of Bethany by this earnest lover of 
the great cause of education. 

Mr. Campbell had announced during the previous 
year the total amount of subscriptions to the college 
as ^25,370, of which In, 681 had been paid. Of 
this sum 111,362 came from Virginia, $10,499 ^^om 
Kentucky, l3,iio from Ohio, and smaller sums 
from different States; |i,ooo from Mr. Campbell 
himself. Three times this sum was all that was 
asked, and it was thought in a population of two 
hundred thousand, ''possessed of just as much wealth 
as any other two hundred thousand professors in any 
denomination in the country — possessed of as much 
faith, piety and humanity, too," equal liberality 
should be expected. The number who had espoused 
the principles advocated by Mr. Campbell was esti- 
mated at this time as two hundred thousand. 

In a report of the financial matters of the college 
the year after Mr. Pendleton was called to the Vice- 
Presidency, 1846, the whole amount subscribed to 
Bethany is $39,574, on which $24,154 had been col- 
lected. $28,717 of this sum had been expended in 
the erection of buildings and improving the grounds 
of the college. Mr. Campbell is treasurer, and Mr. 
Pendleton Vice-President and bursar; 128 students 
are catalogued, and the session is recorded "as the 
most agreeable and prosperous yet experienced in 
our infant institution." The students are com- 
mended as "orderly, circumspect and industrious," 
and were assembled from fifteen States. There were 
sixteen graduates, among them Charles Louis Loos, 
of Ohio, who afterward was to become such a tower 
of strength to the college as well as to the general 



84 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

cause of education and of foreign missions among 
the Disciples of Christ. Mr. Loos had as a subject 
"Civil and Religious Freedom." There was a 
salutatory address in the Greek language, and one 
also in Latin. Of the Greek oration, which was by 
James R. Saltonstall, of Illinois, we are told, "in the 
judgment of all who heard it and understood the lan- 
guage, it was the best delivered address in that lan- 
guage they had ever heard, both as respecting a dis- 
tinct and forcible pronunciation, and a judiciously 
varied and corresponding action." Mr. Campbell 
speaks of all the addresses as "of a very respectable 
character, and a sound moral discrimination." 

Up to this time Bethany had thirty-one graduates, 
and twenty-four had become professors of religion. 
The union of intellectual and moral education 
sought by its founders seemed to be realized. "There 
is not a college in Christendom known to us," says 
Mr. Campbell, "which gives the same attention to 
religious and moral instruction given here, and with- 
out any sectarian bias whatever. The Bible is an 
every-day classic, publicly read by every student in 
rotation, accompanied with lectures and examina- 
tions on sacred history, chronology, geography, an- 
cient manners and customs, and the literature of the 
Bible with its bearing upon men as individuals and 
upon society in all its development and destiny. 
These subjects receive one hour's attention in six 
working days in every week." 

About this time Mr. Pendleton was a constant 
sufferer from dyspepsia. It had become a chronic 
trouble with him. At the beginning of the vaca- 
tion in '46 he went to Philadelphia to consult a 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE 85 

specialist, who advised liim to try an ocean voyage. 
This he did, sailing from Halifax July 20th on the 
steamer "Britannia" for a brief respite from his 
labors among the scenes of old England. He gives 
only the story of his voyage, and later explains that, 
"while he had intended traveling with the readers 
of the Harbinger over the memorable scenes of his 
tour through Great Britain, Mr. Campbell would 
visit the same places under more favorable circum- 
stances, and would not only look with more experi- 
enced eye, but sketch with more masterly hand," 
and he withdraws from a task which will be per- 
formed so much more acceptably. His study of the 
sea, however, is full of interest, and will seem as 
fresh to-day as when written by his gifted pen more 
than half a century ago. 

Clarinda Campbell, and Mr. and Mrs. Semple, of 
Pittsburg, were his companions on this voyage, 
which was during the summer following his wife's 
death. They visited in England a number of the 
friends of Mr. Campbell, among them James Wal- 
lace, of Nottingham. When he went to the count- 
ing-house of Mr. Wallace, and handed him his letter 
of introduction, the latter leaped over his counter 
and took Mr. Pendleton in his arms. Their stay 
with that household was a most delightful one. 

An incident occurred during this trip which he 
simply refers to in his printed account. Many have 
heard him relate the story of the ship's striking a 
rock and springing a leak. The leak was such that 
all the male passengers had to take turns at the 
pumps. The captain was panic-stricken, and com- 
pletely lost his head. There was a young man on 



86 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

board, a passenger, wlio had called down on himself 
a good deal of belittling criticism from many of the 
rest because of his rather self-satisfied air and appar- 
ent indolent indifference to his environment, and the 
fact of his being somewhat dandified in his personal 
adornment, but he proved that he had some sea- 
faring training, and at once rose to the occasion. 
All signs of lethargy gone, he became the soul and 
system of the effort to save the passengers and crew. 
With surprising knowledge of nautical affairs and a 
skill of command over the excited crowd, helpless 
with terror, which was thoroughly out of keeping 
with his previous bearing, he was of great assistance 
in bringins: order out of confusion. This was at 
3:30 in the afternoon, July i8th, off Halifax. The 
ship was repaired at Halifax, but many of the pas- 
sengers were too frightened to trust her again, and 
took other routes. There can be little doubt in this 
emergency that Mr. Pendleton proved an able sec- 
ond to the young man's efforts to get control of the 
terrified company. When in New York, and the 
original O. S. Fowler was in the height of his fame, 
Mr. Pendleton stepped into his oJSce, and one of the 
observations he made was, "If you were on a ship 
in a storm, you'd want to be at the helm." 



CHAPTER IX 

OCEAN VOYAGE 

Every traveller it seems is expected to tell some- 
thiug of the sights lie has seen — to keep a journal or 
diary and note dov/n, with chronological accuracy, 
the happening of every event, whether common- 
place or strange, which may transpire on his way. 
The time one rises, breakfasts, dines, sups, and re- 
tires, are all matters of moment, and the tourist who 
has not regularly tabulated these topics is scarcely a 
traveller, is ignorant of the true threads of discourse 
and gives irrefutable evidence that he has not stud- 
ied the canons of the good and erudite Dr. Kitchi- 
ner. But we humbly trust we may not be tried 
by so time-serving a rule. Indeed, the sick have a 
right to claim exemption from regular duty, and 
for some half dozen days after we loosed cable 
at Halifax, who can deny that we were in a condi- 
tion peculiarly and emphatically sick. The busy 
tools of seven or eight carpenters, in the course 
of twenty-four hours, had repaired the damage of the 
Britannia occasioned by the accident before alluded 
to, and on the morning of the 20th of July, we 
found ourselves making to sea most gallantly. 
Gradually, and one by one sunk the blue hills 
in our horizon, top after top going down as beneath 
another flood, till we stood in the midst of the 
mighty waters, a solitary speck upon the great 
expanse. Far as the eye could reach the white 

87 



88 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

caps were curling, and even beyond our horizon 
imagination would stretch out their circles till it 
was lost in the depths of the infinite space, and 
finding no resting place, returned, as the dove, 
to its little ark to await the dawn of another day, 
when verdure which may never fade shall spring, 
and new heavens and a new earth open fountains of 
contemplation and thought from which we may 
drink to fulness forever. 

On, on we glided, farther and farther into the 
heaving ocean, gazing into its beautiful green 
depths, and watching the white spray as it played 
its dallying eddies about us, when lo! in an instant, 
round — round go the vessel, the sea, the heavens — 
everything above, around, beneath, whirling, and 
bowing, and dancing like the personam of an opera; 
— companions turn pale, then blue, then green — 
bowsprit bows to ocean, mizzenmast courtesies to the 
sky, and the very vessel seems sinking into the 
bosom of the waters, till, O misery! up comes, heav- 
ing and whooping, the genius of the change, and 
staggering and retching, clinging here to a railing 
and there to a rope, we tumble on to our berth, and 
plunging head foremost into bed, hug the phantom 
of despair and give up forever. Ah, but this sick- 
ness! who that has ever had real, genuine, unsophis- 
ticated sea-sickness, will shrink to grapple with tar- 
tar emetic or presume to call lobelia infiata deadly! 
The bursting of boilers, the howling of storms, the 
portentous visions of a watery grave, all are thoughts 
of consolation and relief; yea, pitching overboard 
comes as the prescription of an anodyne, in the dull, 
dreadful, death-like despair of this direst dose. 



OCEAN VOYAGE 89 

But extremes work their own cure, and so witli the 
over-dose of this never-to-be-forgotten prescription. 
We cannot tell the hour nor the day when, but so it 
was, we got better, got out of bed, got up on deck, 
and once more looked around us, a free-seeming 
denizen of the wave. 

Our company consisted of a few over a hundred 
passengers, besides the crev/, in all about eighty 
more, and though made up of strangers from almost 
every nation, we found much pleasant society among 
them. Along, were several ministers of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and one lyUtheran, all of 
whom we found pleasant gentlemen and pious 
Christians. They were wending their way to the 
great World's Convention, or Evangelical Alliance, 
and some of them, I see, were conspicuous in the 
discussion of the slavery test proposed to be adopted 
by Elder Hinton, and seconded by Mr. Himes, the 
Millerite, of Boston. Garrison, too, the fanatical 
leader of the most ultra and disorganizing portion of 
the abolition agitators, was one among us, though 
scarcely one of us. He seemed to have no sympathy 
with anybody on board, but in gloomy retirement, 
meditated upon his schemes of revolution and chaos, 
as the only food adapted to the cormorant appetite 
of his depraved and misguided ambition. Our min- 
isters, all, I believe, anti-slavery men, avoided him 
as unv/orthy the noble benevolence of emancipation, 
and it was not till near the end of our voyage 
that we had an opportunity of hearing from his own 
lips some of the absurd and infidel principles upon 
which his s^^stem is based. Insulting, dogmatical 
and coarse, he seems to have discarded the author- 



go LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ity of the Bible, except as a collection of apt adages 
with which to illustrate and enforce reason, the 
assumed basis of his fabric, and to have exalted 
nature (of the true definition of which he showed 
himself utterly ignorant) as the only true and 
rightful potentate of earth. The clergy, the mer- 
cenary and time-serving clergy, and the blood- 
thirsty, man-stealing, throat-cutting slaveholder, are 
the unwitting butts of his ferocious, not satire, but 
grimace, whilst union of every kind, political and 
domestic, is to be disruptured and torn, ground into 
powder and suspended in a rational solution, that 
the affinities of nature may have unresisted sway and 
the great elements of society recombine, according 
to his newly discovered law of political proportions. 
We looked keenly for the test by which we like 
to judge abolitionists, that is some evidence of a 
really kind and benevolent heart, but in vain. The 
very elements of his nature are gall and wormwood 
— and combined, as they are, with a scheming, 
but little and bigoted mind, they make him the 
most unfit of men to minister about the altar 
of benevolence, or co-operate in anything involving 
the high gifts of an exalted moral nature. 

There is no place, perhaps, a more perfect plat- 
form of equality than aboard a steamship. All dis- 
tinctions are merged into the common fare and 
mutual danger, and whilst, of course, kindred spirits 
will, out of fellow-feeling, group together and form 
little companies of greater intimacy, there is ever a 
free and unrestrained intercommunication between 
all. It is a little society, or rather a large family 
confined to the house for some two weeks or more. 



OCEAN VOYAGE - 91 

composed not of brothers and sisters, but strangers 
and foreigners ;— and as it migbt be difficult for so 
large a collection of human beings all of one ances- 
try, to sojourn so pent up so long without some dis- 
agreeable collision, it is not to be marvelled at, that 
in so mixed an assemblage, on some occasions 
national and sometimes personal prejudices and mis- 
understandings arise to break, at the same time, the 
monotony and peace of the voyage. Indeed, it is 
scarcely prudent to coop up in so small a compass 
for the period of a passage, men and women 
so diverse in their education, standing, and habits, 
and reduce them all at once to the common level 
which necessarily obtains on board a steamship. 
Hence, we learn it is by no means uncommon 
to encounter not only the raging of the sea, but the 
fiercer fury of the human passion aroused to conflict 
and to strife. We were so fortunate, however, in 
our passage over, as to escape everything of so 
unpleasant a character, and though we were de- 
barred the privilege of religious exercises on the 
Lord's day, by the instructions under which our 
captain professed to act, we enjoyed much in the 
society of Christian friends, and in meditating upon 
the magnificence and wonders of the mysterious 
deep. Especially do we remember the pious inter- 
communion we had with the most amiable and 
trustful Mrs. Semple, of Pittsburg, whose unfalter- 
ing faith was made known to us in her conduct 
when we struck, and whose piety was manifested in 
all she did. 

But the Christian need never be alone. If he is 
a lover of nature — and every Christian is — he has 



92 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

always about him silent but eloquent tongues, 
speaking in strains sweet as heavenly harmony 
of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, and 
lifting the spirit by their mysterious power to ad- 
mire and praise the author of so much loveliness 
and beauty. What a store-house of blessings is the 
ocean! — No man can comprehend, much less count 
its purposes in the deep economy of our mundane 
system. — But we may admire even when we cannot 
explain, and enjoy the visible, external displays even 
of unsolved mysteries. 

The monotony of a sea voyage, especially on 
board a steam ship, is nothing like equal to what 
one would likely anticipate. The company is so 
large, the variety of their character and disposition 
so multiplied, and the ever- recurring wonders of the 
deep so curious, that one is furnished with incessant 
objects for observation and reflection. The ocean 
itself, whether in calm or in storm, by night or day, 
teeming with her wonderful life or sleeping in 
tenantless solitude, is a study, beautiful, mysterious, 
and sublime enough for the highest occupation of 
either poet or philosopher. In the low, deep, and 
wailing moan of its sleeping but unresting bosom, we 
seem to hear the murmuriugs of imprisoned but 
unsubdued spirits, borne in the fierce shock of the 
tempest to her fathomless and remorseless abyss, 
and complaining that she doth torment them before 
their time; whilst in the mountain wave of her 
wrath, when she lifts her proud crest to the 
heavens and comes pouring along in the might of 
her strength, as if to sweep from her indignant 
bosom the presumptuous bark that but now floated 



OCEAN VOYAGE 93 

so softly upon it, we stand appalled at the fierce 
thunder of her anger, and feel ourselves humbled 
into nothingness, yet cheered by our confidence in 
Him ''who stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise 
of the waves, and the tumults of the people." 

We were gliding silently over our way, when the 
sudden cry, "A whale! A whale!" called all eyes to 
the windward; and there in his native element was 
sporting leviathan— sometimes rolling his huge 
trunk more than half into sight and anon burying 
it again beneath the surface of the waves. Still 
we could track him by the torrent of water he 
would occasionally spout up perpendicularly for 
many feet in the heavens — and the huge, dark out- 
line of his scaly back, just skimming the surface 
enough to be visible. This is the largest animal in 
nature, being sometimes found one hundred and 
sixty feet in length, and seventy or eighty in 
circumference. It is a valuable article of commerce, 
and both in the northern and southern seas hundreds 
of vessels are constantly braving all the inclemency 
of climate and dangers of the sea, in its capture. 
They are valuable for the train oil, spermaceti, and 
whalebone, which they yield in great quantities, and 
which contribute so much to the comforts and 
necessities of society. The demand for the two 
former, however, science is supplying by other 
means and from other sources; and since the good 
old times of our grandmothers, when rigid stays and 
expanded hoops were thought to give ease and grace 
to the form, even whalebone is in less requisition. 
It is curious to see, even in the grave acts of wise 
leo-islators a few centuries ago, how ignorant the 



94 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

most learned were of natural history. Everybody 
now knows that whalebone is but the thin laminae 
or horny substance adhering to the upper jaw of 
the animal; yet Blackstone tells us, it was an old 
feudal law, that the tail of every whale belonged, as 
a perquisite, to the Queen, to furnish her Majesty's 
wardrobe with -whalebone. To what extremes 
ignorance will lead us! 

We saw but few whales during our voyage, but 
shoals of porpoises were frequent, and served, in no 
small degree, to relieve the solemn sameness of the 
rolling deep. Sometimes they seemed to be racing 
with our bounding steamer, and would roll and 
tumble their great bodies through the water, like so 
many immense hogs struggling with the waves for 
life, and keeping by our side for miles — again they 
would be seen for a few moments only, apparently 
crossing our path, or else avoiding our observation 
by diving beneath the surface and burying them- 
selves deep in the v/aves. There is a beautiful 
evidence of design on the part of the great Creator, 
in the structure of this animal, as well as the whale, 
adapted to the habit of breathing on the surface, but 
of devouring their food under water. It is in the 
structure of the larynx, whereby a perfect communi- 
cation may be kept up between the lungs and the 
mouth. In land animals, the upper part of the 
windpipe is kept closely shut by a valve, which 
closes tightly over its orifice whilst food is passing 
from the mouth to the stomach, thus preventing it 
from entering the lungs, and fulfilling the intention 
of making the same opening of the throat and mouth 
serve the double purpose of a conduit both for food 



OCEAN VOYAGE 95 

to the stomacTi and air to the lungs. But in the 
whale and the porpoise this arrangement would not 
answer, and accordingly we find that by a most 
simple and easy modification, the allwise Father has 
provided against the difficulty and adapted their 
structure to their necessities. Again, in the head of 
the porpoise, observes Lord Brougham, "we find its 
cavities capable of great distension, and such that he 
can fill them at pleasure with air or water, accord- 
ing as he would mount, float, or sink. By closing 
the blow-hole, he shuts out the water; by letting in 
the water, he can sink; by blowing from the lungs 
against the cavities, he can force out the water and 
fill the hollows with air, in order to rise. No one 
can doubt that such facts afford direct evidence of 
an apt contrivance toward a specific object; and 
adapted by some power thoroughly acquainted with 
the laws of hydrostatics, as well as perfect skill in 
workmanship." 

Night, as well as day, has its wonders. It is then 
that the beautiful phenomenon of phosphorscence 
may be seen in all its brilliancy. Sometimes the cap 
of every wave, as it lifts its splashing crest aloft and 
sinks curling back to its bed, seems like a flashing 
beacon light, and the whole sea looks like a mighty 
encampment, sleeping in the midst of its flickering 
watchfires. The wake of the vessel glows like a 
sheet of burnished gold; and in the whirling eddies 
that play around the wheel-house, balls of light, 
larger and more brilliant than stars, radiate, burn, 
and go out, with a lustre, intensity, and rapidity of 
succession, beautiful as the meteors of autumn. 
The explanation of this phenomenon has occupied 



96 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the minds of our most acute philosophers, from 
Newton down; whilst it may be true, as Geo. Isaac 
has suggested, that many causes concur, there can 
be no question now, that it is mainly produced by 
the presence of animalculse in the water. They 
have been observed in innumerable shoals, and may 
be seen by the naked eye, even when removed from 
the water. When violently agitated they give forth 
their light in greater brilliancy, and hence illumine 
more brightly those portions of the sea that are in 
greatest commotion. 

It was on the morning of the 30th of July that the 
spires of lyiverpool first came into view. We had 
been for more than twenty-four hours wading 
through the British Channel, with the rugged and 
dangerous coast of Ireland, for the most part, in 
view; and now we had entered the Mersey and were 
bearing fast upon the mother both of merchantmen 
and men-of-war. Wales had been left behind us on 
the right, and we were already almost in the bosom 
of England. The banks of the Mersey looked green 
and cheerful in the bright sun, with which we were 
almost miraculously favored, and the hand of culti- 
vation and art showed itself everywhere in the 
beautiful embellishments of the coast. All our 
company were up on deck, arrayed in their best 
holiday suits, as if to be in keeping with the neat- 
ness and freshness ashore; and many, like ourselves, 
looking with the curiosity of a first sight upon every- 
thing connected with this our much heard of, but 
never before seen, mother. Small steamers were 
plying hither and thither, in every direction, 
crowded with living masses of human beings, and 



OCEAN VOYAGE 97 

dashing athwart each other's paths with a lightness 
and ease scarcely to be fancied, whilst all along- 
side and before us, stretched in one dense and leaf- 
less forest, lay the vessels of every clime and nation 
on earth, with their sails all motionless and furled, 
and their colors flapping lazily in the sleepy breeze 
that just lifted them from their fastenings. The deep 
and deafening tones of welcoming cannon thundered 
in our ears, trembled upon the wave, and then roll- 
ing back over the merry plains of England, were 
lost in the more cheering shouts of the multitudes 
around. Salute after salute, shout after shout, from 
shore to vessel and vessel to shore again, rose and 
died upon the air, till nearer and nearer familiar 
hands were clasping, long separated hearts embrac- 
ing, and our vessel was in port. 

Many of our company had acquaintances waiting 
to greet them, and those who had not, soon found 
entertainment in the officers of custom, who hung 
with greedy watchfulness upon portmanteaus, 
trunks, and what not, that might give cloak for 
a smuggle. Stript of all our earthly goods, save 
what we bore on our persons, we procured a cab and 
directed to drive to the Adelphi House, one of the 
finest hotels in England. We passed through an ex- 
tensive part of this, the second city in Great Britain, 
and were much disappointed in the appearance pre- 
sented. The houses were neither so tall (being 
generally only three low stories) nor so elegant as 
I had anticipated. They are mostly of brick, and 
from age as well as original coarseness, have a very 
dark, rough, and unfinished aspect. Everything 
looked old. Certainly the cities of England cannot 
7 



98 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

compare with those of the United States in neatness 
and elegance. Neither can this, in the case of 
Liverpool especially, be owing to its greater age. 
In the last half century it has quintupled its popu- 
lation, and of course erected a correspondent propor- 
tion of its buildings. 

No city in the world, perhaps, has profited so 
much as Liverpool by the congenerous businesses of 
the slave trade and privateering. That most in- 
human and brutal of occupations that ever minis- 
tered to the avarice of human fiends — the slave 
trade — was here carried on to an extent and system- 
atic cruelty unequaled, by any other port ever 
polluted by the traffic. In 1723 it began, and down 
to 1806, when it was abolished, for nearly one full 
century did she, with the eagerness of the blood- 
hound, prosecute the traffic; and when the hearts 
of England at length opened to the cry that en- 
slaved thousands were sending up daily to their 
ears, and the general voice proclaimed it should no 
longer be, Liverpool had no less than one hundred 
and eleven vessels, with a tonnage of nearly twenty- 
six thousand, actually afloat upon the sea, either in 
pursuit or in possession of human cargo. The fruits 
of this barbarism are still enjoyed by many a living- 
descendant, and much of the wealth and magnifi- 
cence of the city may yet be traced back to the 
lucky adventures in this nefarious traffic. The 
population of Liverpool is about equal to that 
of New York; and, like most every other large 
and opulent city, she can boast of many magnificent 
public buildings, useful and well sustained literary 
establishments, some well conducted schools and 



OCEAN VOYAGE gg 

charitable institutions, many commodious churches 
chapels and cemeteries— places of amusement, etc. 
—with a commerce amounting in the aggregate 
to perhaps two hundred millions of dollars per 
annum. The accomplished historian, Roscoe, au- 
thor of the lives of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Leo 
X, was a native and citizen of Liverpool. But the 
greatest wonder of this city is found in her magnifi- 
cent and almost limitless docks. No less than one 
hundred and ten acres of surface have been walled 
off from the river and are now occupied as docks for 
the safe reception of vessels, and present a quay- 
space of nearly seven and a fourth miles in length. 

In the Adelphi House, as in every other public 
house in England, we found the arrangements 
all novel. One must bring his company with him, 
or else live in solitary and lonely seclusion. There 
is no common table or meal hour, or public parlor, 
in the best houses; but every party, whether of one 
or more, has its own suite of rooms, its own table, 
furnished at whatever hour and with whatever 
viands it may order, and keeps its own company. 
In this fashion, making a company of four, we ate 
our first dinner in England, cooked to our order, 
and served upon plate once the property of George 
III — no inappropriate compliment to heirs and 
lineal descendants of revolutionary fathers. 

.L,o?C. 



CHAPTER X 
CAIvIvED TO BE CO-EDITOR 

With the issue for January, 1846, tlie title page 
of tlie Harbinger reads for the first time, *'The Mil- 
lennial Harbinger, conducted by A. Campbell and 
W. K. Pendleton." Thus the great reformer makes 
another move to associate more closely with himself 
his gifted son-in-law. Tokens of his confidence in 
Mr. Pendleton's ability are substantial and abundant 
at every step. Speaking of the future of the jour- 
nal, and the increased responsibilities the cause of 
reform imposed, he says in the preface of this vol- 
ume: *'With reference to these, and especially to 
the perfecting of some new works on hand, we have 
enlarged this work and called in the aid of an assist- 
ant editor. We desire to give to the work some- 
thing more of the character of a family magazine to 
interest and instruct the young members of our 
churches and the youth of those families into which 
we make our monthly visits. This province we 
shall principally assign to Brother W. K. Pendleton, 
Assistant Editor, who will no doubt combine the 
useful with the entertaining, and make the work 
peculiarly acceptable to the rising generation." 

As is usual with knights of the quill on assuming 
an editorial tripod, Mr. Pendleton writes an ''Ad- 
dress to the Readers of the Harbinger." He says for 
several years past it has been his high privilege to 
hold communion with the "Courteous Reader," but 

100 









VIEWS OF THE BUFFALO. 



CALLED TO BE CO-EDITOR loi 

as a stranger who almost feared to be recognized, 
"and under the mantle of fictitious names." A 
change in the editorial relations of the Harbinger, 
and an enlargement of its' volume, render it proper 
to lay aside the disguise he would even yet most 
willingly wear, and "throw off the covering of our 
weakness to which, more than the mantle of public 
charity, we have trusted hitherto for the hiding of 
our faults." He thinks co-laborers for good are 
never the censors of one another. "The benevo- 
lence which will pour its sympathies over the errors 
of an enemy and bend like a Niobe over the fallen 
and fated wreck of a strange humanity, will surely 
feel more tenderly and fraternally towards their fel- 
low-soldier in their warfare for good, and rather 
than deride when he stumbles, or scoff should he 
fall, lift up their voice as in Rama and weep. 
Still, if in the faithful discharge of the part which 
has been assigned us there should be found any who 
shall deem it pleasurable to themselves or their 
readers rudely to find fault, or uncharitably to cen- 
sure, we trust ever to be ready to meet them, not 
indeed with the vials of wrath or thunderbolts of 
war, but with a cupful of kindness and conversation 
seasoned with salt." 

He discusses the conditions of society and the 
need of the gospel. All development that leads not 
men toward the kingdom of Christ is transient as 
the glow of the sunset. The true glory and dignity 
of man is in his connection with Christ. "When 
the king and the captain shall lie weltering by the 
side of the common soldier, and the grandees roll 
their rich purple and fine linen in the clotted gore 



102 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

of their slaughtered hosts, the vulture and the eagle 
and the beast of prey shall know no difference in 
rank, and the jaws of Hades will open as greedy for 
the great and the proud as the slave and the serf. 
Their passwords of earthly honor will fail them 
here, and none but they who have been enrolled in 
the Lamb's book of life can triumph over death." 
He proposes a series of papers on the earth, the 
World, and to unfold the true relation of the Chris- 
tian to man, to society and to the world. First the 
earth, the physical creation on which we live, and 
from the earth by easy transition to pass into the 
world of its busy beings, and enter upon a cursory 
view of its many-tongued tribes who make up the 
mighty mass of its responsible agents. The idea is 
to make the paper more popular in style and matter, 
**a family instructor, not only in religion, but in 
general, useful, popular education." Then such 
topics as may render the Harbinger more interesting 
to the general reader, and combine with its hereto- 
fore more restricted religious aspect others which, 
though less important, are nevertheless of much 
utility and great general interest. Current ecclesias- 
tical history of the day and, so far as they may have 
a moral or religious bearing, the more prominent 
changes which may be effected in the great political 
relations of the nations of the earth, will be legiti- 
mate subjects of notice. Much that is passing in 
the rapid development and widespread prevalence of 
the present reformation should also be noted and 
preserved. "Miscellaneous copy can never be antic- 
ipated in detail, and therefore can only be promised 
miscellaneously. The arts and sciences, however. 



CALLED TO BE CO-EDITOR 103 

we may Si^ecify as particularly worthy of notice, as 
well perhaps as an occasional glance at the merits 
and demerits of such works as may come within the 
purview of our chart. All else must be anticipated 
on trust." 

In conclusion, he promises the most unwavering 
faithfulness. "V7e shall do our best, and do it in 
all affection and all honesty— so that, come what 
may, we can be able to turn in upon ourselves with- 
out reproach and without remorse." 

It will be seen our editor lays out for himself a 
wide field of service. In a sense the world is his 
parish, and it is the earth he is after. With so vast 
an horizon it is not likely he will ever be in the 
position of the country editor who was perplexed for 
a line and a half. It was during the dead season, 
and being much distressed for matter he ransacked 
every hole and corner for intelligence, and after 
having, as he thought, completed his task, he sat 
down to dinner — to such dinner as he had and with 
what appetite he might. In the middle of it he was 
interrupted by the entrance of his familiar, alias the 
devil, demanding more copy. "The vexing fellow! 
More copy! Why, have you put in the story of the 
tremendous mushroom found in Mrs. Jones' field?" 
*'Yes, sir." "And the account of the prodigious 
apples gathered from Mr. Sims' tree?" "Yes, sir." 
"And about Mr. Thompson's kitten being suckled 
by a hedgehog?" "Yes, sir." "And Mr. Smith's 
dreadful accident with his one-horse shay as he 
passed down Holburn hill?" "Yes, sir." "And 
about the men who stole the corn out of the stacks 
in the farmyard?" "Yes, sir, it is all up, but there 



104 LIEE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

is still a line and a half wanted." "Then add," 
said the editor, with the utmost dignity, '■'•that they 
most audaciously took and thrashed it out on the 
premises/'''* 

It is needless to say with what commendable in- 
dustry and unvarying success Mr. Pendleton ad- 
dressed himself to his task. For some time before 
the public announcement of his association vnth. Mr. 
Campbell, he had been a regular contributor to the 
Harbinger, though under an assumed title. Few 
pens were ever more ready and graceful than his. 
Examples of the purest, clearest English are his fre- 
quent contributions to the pages of Mr. Campbell's 
monthly. Even his brief notices and comments on 
passing events are expressed in the same chaste and 
attractive style which characterizes his more ex- 
tended and elaborate articles. His very penmanship 
had a peculiar charm. Correct, according to the 
most approved standard, its lines of beauty and char- 
acter would at once delight the eye and indicate the 
man. There is a strange phrase connected with the 
art of the calligrapher found in all modern lan- 
guages — "to write like an angel." Penmanship is 
not generally thought of as a celestial accomplish- 
ment, and this phrase had a very human origin. 
Among the Greeks was one Angelo Vergecio, whose 
beautiful calligraphy excited the admiration of the 
learned. He emigrated to France, and the French 
king, Francis I., had a Greek font cast modeled by 
his writing. His name became synonymous for 
beautiful penmanship, and gave birth to the proverb, 
' ' To write like an angel. ' ' 

Mr. Pendleton's writing might pass for copper- 



CALLED TO BE CO-EDITOR 105 

plate, and was as clear and careful as his thinking. 
He wrote deliberately, and seldom changed a word. 
"I am intimately acquainted," says Disraeli, "with 
the handwritings of five of our great poets. The 
first in early life acquired, among Scottish advocates, 
a handwriting which cannot be distinguished from 
that of his ordinary brothers; the second, educated 
in public schools where writing is shamefully neg- 
lected, composes his sublime or sportive verses in a 
schoolboy's ragged scrawl, as if he had never fin- 
ished his tasks with the writing-master; the third 
writes his highly- wrought poetry in the common 
hand of a merchant's clerk, from early commercial 
avocations; the fourth has all the finished neatness 
which polished his verses, while the fifth is a speci- 
men of a full mind, not in the habit of correction or 
alteration, so that he appears to be printing down 
his thoughts, without a solitary erasure." The last 
of these might represent Mr. Pendleton's autograph. 
He never used, as some men, a spider for an amanu- 
ensis, dipping his legs in an ink bottle, and then 
suffering him to crawl over the sheet. His manu- 
script was always neat and perfectly legible, and his 
thoughts expressed in the same elegant and pains- 
taking manner. As a mine of pure gold, the pages 
of the Harbinger will reward any student v/ho de- 
lights in Addisonian English as well as gospel truth. 
The plan outlined in Mr. Pendleton's address to 
his readers is faithfully carried out. First, came the 
promised series on the World. One would think 
them rather heavy for popular reading, but the Har- 
binger is not a weekly religious newspaper; it is a 
monthly magazine. The first of his papers is on 



io6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Man, Ms history and classification, and he shows 
how physiological research has verified the teaching 
of prophecy; in the second he treats the variety and 
different languages of the earth; in the third the 
religions of the race are taken up under three heads, 
Idolatry, Judaism and Christianity. In addition to 
these essays, Mr. Pendleton has a number of less 
noteworthy compositions in this volume. One of 
these on Thanksgiving Days shows the attitude of 
the Church at that time toward ''the comparatively 
modern fashion of secular government appointing 
great and national thanksgivings, and marshaling 
the Church, as though they were its head, in the 
solemn and imposing duty of returning gratitude to 
the Father of mercies for his continued and un- 
wearied kindness to men. ' ' In view of tlie generally 
accepted theory of to-day the article is interesting 
reading. 

It is not often that Mr. Pendleton ever indulges in 
illustrations, or yields to the temptation of story- 
telling, in his dignified and learned contributions to 
the Harbinger, but here he departs from his usual 
course. He discusses England's wars in India, and 
the awful destruction of the Sikhs in a recent battle 
at Sutlej, "and for this victory," he says, "Queen 
Victoria has ordered thanksgiving to be offered in 
all the English churches, and the Archbishop of 
Canterbury has been employed to compose a suitable 
prayer for the occasion. Now we doubt not the 
wisdom of the latter precaution, for we make no 
question but that it will take all the learning and 
fully as little as the piety of an archbishop to com- 
pose a prayer at all suitable for such an occasion. 



CALLED TO BE CO-EDITOR 107 

Yea, we think it probable that the Arcbbisbop him- 
self will be a little like the old Scotcli divine who, 
at the close of our Revolution, was called upon 
among others by the general order of King George 
to engage in the task of a thanksgiving sermon. 
Being very naturally at a loss to know for what the 
king wished him to give thanks, he sought his 
Majesty and inquired. 'Shall it be,' said he, *that 
your Majesty has lost thirteen flourishing provinces?' 
'No, no, mun; not for that!' 'Shall it be, then, 
that one hundred thousand of your Majesty's brave 
and faithful soldiers have fallen in battle?' No,, 
mun, no; not for that either!' 'Will your Majesty 
have us give thanks that the war has entailed upon 
our country a debt of one hundred millions of 
pounds?' 'Tut, tut, mun, no; for none of these 
things!' 'For what, then, may it please your 
Majesty, shall we give thanks?' 'Why,' said the 
king, 'give thanks, to be sure, that things are no 
worse with us!' " 

In 1847 Mr. Pendleton has virtually the whole 
responsibility of the magazine. Mr. Campbell, from 
May to October, is in Europe, and writes his letters 
to his daughter Clarinda which form such a splendid 
feature of that and of the next volume. There are 
twenty-six of these communications, and they are 
full of interest, even at this late day. He crossed on 
the packet ship Siddons, and was more than three 
weeks making the journey to Liverpool. 

The session is a very successful one in the history 
of the college. The whole amount subscribed to the 
institution to July 18, 1847, ^s given as forty thou- 
sand, nine hundred and seventy-nine dollars, of 



io8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

which twenty-nine thousand and sixty-seven dollars 
had been collected. The degree of B. A. is con- 
ferred upon thirteen graduates, among them T. N. 
Arnold, Allen R. Benton and Robert Graham. The 
literary exercises are reported as highly creditable 
to the talents and rhetorical attainments of the 
speakers. Vice-President Pendleton, after a brief 
and eloquent baccalaureate, read to the graduating 
class a lengthy address of Mr. Campbell, written on 
shipboard, which covers twelve pages of the Harbin- 
ger— ''the parting precepts of a mind richly stored 
with oracular lessons of wisdom and adorned with 
the well- won trophies of a life of lore." A scheme 
of scholarships, 2,500 in number, to be sold at fifty 
dollars each, is launched by the Board of Trustees 
in order to increase the funds of the institution, to 
sustain and retain a faculty competent to its moral 
government, and to impart in best style a thorough 
education in all the sciences and learning of the age, 
ancient and modern, that it may always stand in the 
front rank of American colleges. "Already," says 
Mr. Campbell, in announcing this plan, "more than 
half the United States have been represented in 
Bethany in a single year. Under the new arrange- 
ments we shall expect to have a collegiate congress 
of the whole United States. We shall expect to see 
the east and west, the north and south, mutually 
embracing each other, while acquiring learning and 
science, and cultivating amity, virtue and patriot- 
ism within the same walls. ' ' 

What lofty ideals inspired this noble mind! What 
visions of a great future for this fountain of light, 
life and blessing, opened among the Virginia hills! 



CALLED TO BE CO-EDITOR 109 

Wbat a lioly trust he lias left to his brethren! What 
a monument it ought to be, reared in enduring and 
grateful affection, and preserved in generous and 
constant service to his revered memory! If one 
hundredth part of the people who have been en- 
riched by the benefactions of his life and teaching 
were to bestow even a modest tribute in return in 
the endowment of the school of learning which was 
so precious in his sight, Bethany would to-day rank 
among the best sustained institutions in the land. 
The world is slow to remember its greatest benefac- 
tors, nor is it discriminating in the choice of its 
saints. Men have been canonized who should have 
been cannonaded, and men cannonaded who should 
have been canonized. The Lord will reward his 
own. 

On the Harbinger Mr. Pendleton's work this year 
is increasingly effective. He contributes his articles 
on the World — dealing with religions, chiefly Bud- 
dhism and Mohammedism. He writes a series of 
very practical, kindly and scriptural papers on Dis- 
cipline. His reference to Lloyd Garrison, in his ac- 
count of his voyage across the Atlantic, has called 
forth a remonstrance from an "abolition friend in 
Ohio," and to this also he makes a vigorous reply, 
a charge of "infidelity" against Mr. Garrison being 
investigated. The scheme of scholarships for Beth- 
any's endowment receives full attention from his 
pen, and he discusses the Baptism of the Holy Spirit 
with some correspondent. The sad death, by 
drowning, of Wyckliff Ewing Campbell, second son 
of Alexander Campbell, a boy of ten years, while 
swimming in the Buffalo with Henry Bwing and 



no LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Thomas M. Henley, two of Mr. Campbell's grand- 
sons, is also recorded tenderly by bim. Mr. Camp- 
bell's absence in Great Britain added to tbe pecu- 
liarly distressing circumstances tbat attended this 
affliction. 

At this period of his life, Mr. Pendleton's growth 
is easily marked. The teacher is a more diligent 
and painstaking student than any of those under his 
instruction. He finds study indeed Scientia scien- 
tzaruin^ onini melle dulcior^ 07nni pane stiavior^ 
07n7ii vino hilarior. "If you devote your time to 
study," says Seneca, "you will avoid all the irk- 
someness of this life; nor will you long for the ap- 
proach of night, being tired of the day; nor will you 
be a burden to yourself, nor your society insupporta- 
ble to others." To be an efficient teacher one must 
be an example of devotion to study as well as a thor- 
ough instructor in the things he would impart to 
others. Perhaps no man has lived in America more 
indefatigable in this respect than Dr. Charles 
Anthon, whose books were so well thought of at 
Bethany. Fourteen hours out of twenty-four he was 
working at his books, and writing, writing, writing. 
He thought nothing of turning out four classical 
books with copious notes in a year, and would throw 
in a drama and a classical dictionary for good meas- 
ure. A pale, worn, thin, haggard anatomy, too 
fragile to cast a shadow, adorned with spectacles, 
and armed with scratch book? Oh, no; author and 
editor of works too numerous to mention, except in 
the catalogue of the Bodleian, Dr. Anthon was a 
liale, hearty, wholesome, thick-set, stout bachelor 
of forty, a frank, cheerful countenance, unv,^rinkled 



CALLED TO BE CO-EDITOR m 

brow and rubicund visage, as if, instead of musty 
folios, those joyous sisters, air and exercise, had been 
his lifetime companions. Consuming midnight oil? 
Oh, no; going to bed at nine and rising at two A. m. 
Rare sport of a winter's morning, the mercury at 
zero, with two alarm clocks in his dormitory, oper- 
ating half an hour apart, so if one does not arouse 
him, the other shall; lighting his own fire, lamp 
trimmed and burning, studies and writes, and writes 
and studies, till breakfast, and then till the ringing 
of the grammar school bell that calls him to his pro- 
fessional duties. 

Prof. Pendleton had this spirit. Study was his 
delight. He made one mistake. If the Columbia 
professor wrote too many books, the Bethany pro- 
fessor fell short of his opportunity in failing to give 
the results of his mature thinking and patient inves- 
tigation to the care of the art preservative of all arts. 



CHAPTER XI 

1848-1851 

After the death of his first wife, Mr. Pendleton 
felt he could not stay in Bethany and carry on his 
work, and at the close of the college session he 
offered his resignation. This is embodied in the 
general report that he made, as was the custom on 
the part of the members of the faculty, and will 
give an idea of the scope of his work. It is dated 
July 3, 1846: 

To the Honorable the Board of Trustees of Bethany College the 
undersigned respectfully reports: 

That he has, during the collegiate year now past, conducted a 
class of about thirty students through the regular course of Nat- 
ural Philosophy, embracing all the branches heretofore taught 
by him except Mechanics, which, together with Hydrostatics 
and Pneumatics, was assigned by your body at your last annual 
session to the Professor of Mathematics. The two latter depart- 
ments, however, at the request of Prof. Mason, were retained by 
me and formed a part of the course of my instruction above 
alluded to. 

In connection with this school, the undersigned would respect- 
fully suggest the importance of providing the Professor with 
means for procuring additional apparatus. 

The undersigned has also conducted a class through the sev- 
eral branches of political economy, moral science, and intel- 
lectual philosophy. 

Under the new apportionment of duties adopted at your last 
meeting, the Professor was required to teach Zoology, and accord- 
ingly a very respectable class was formed, and, so far as practi- 
cable, in the absence of fossil and other specimens, was intro- 
duced to this useful and interesting study. The Board will par- 
don me for suggesting to them on this subject the absolute im- 
portance of providing means for procuring a cabinet of geolog- 

112 



tK^^PIB^h 









\t>J 






KX 









p^ 



^ 



N 





1848-1851 113 

ical specimens. The class in Astronomy, also assigned to my 
care, has been conducted through the interesting treatise of Dr. 
Herschel, and assisted by such lectures and illustrations as were 
deemed useful to its progress and proficiency. In addition to 
these — the regular duties assigned to my chair, I have, in the 
office of Vice-President with which your body honored me for 
the year now past, attended, as far as my limited abilities en- 
abled me, to the duties of the President during his absence. For 
the honor conferred on me by the Board in placing me in this 
most responsible position, I beg leave to take this the first 
opportunity which has presented itself of tendering them my 
earnest thanks, and at the same time confessing my conscious 
inability to fill as I could wish the expectations which must 
have led to my appointment. 

In conclusion, I feel that I 0¥/e to the Board and to my fellow- 
professors an apology for some loss of time and a temporary 
relaxation of that energy in the prosecution of my labors which 
their example and your authority both claimed of me. The rea- 
son is known to you, and I doubt not the excuse already made. 
I could not help it. Candor perhaps requires that I should ex- 
press to you the fear which I entertain of being able for some 
time to come to feel the same interest in my labors that I have 
heretofore felt, or to discharge them with equal profit to the in- 
terests of the institution and my fellow-professors. The com- 
mon interest of the faculty gives each a claim upon the energetic 
co-operation of the others which even the afflictions of Provi- 
dence cannot cancel, and it is but due to them and to your hon- 
orable body who are intrusted with the general welfare of the 
college, in the uncertainty which I feel concerning my own 
health and ability, to express to you, however reluctantly, my 
entire readiness to retire from my position and give place to an- 
other. I feel as deep an interest in the college as I am capable 
of feeling in anything of the kind, and nothing but a sense of 
justice to others influences me in the tender which I now 
respectfully make to you of my chair, to dispose of it as your wis- 
dom may decide best. 

Very respectfully, 

W. K. Pe;ndi,eton, 
Professor of Natural Philosophy. 

His resignation was not accepted and he went on 
with his work. He lived alone. He gave himself 

8 



114 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

to his books and his pen. During this time his 
famous ghost story had its origin. It was on this 
wise: He was always a light sleeper, usually slept 
five hours, not more, at a time, then wake and read, 
and when he was older he dozed during the day — a 
moment at a time. During the period referred to he 
was very much occupied with his studies, and sat 
up very late at night. One night he heard a step 
on the landing outside his door, slowly and cau- 
tiously descending the stairs. His room opened on 
a landing, and opposite it was another room, seldom 
used. From these a dark stairway ran down be- 
tween two walls. As he heard the step he went out 
upon the landing with a lamp. No one in sight. 
He listened — no sound. He tried the door opposite. 
It was locked. Then he went downstairs and ex- 
amined the house — all securely closed. He went 
back to his room, and presently the step was heard 
again. He went out on the landing, but saw noth- 
ing, and concluded that his imagination was unduly 
aroused by late hours, and went to bed. After a few 
nights the sound occurred again. He listened, and 
again a slow, distinct step going down the stairs. 
He went out on the landing — nothing there, exam- 
ined the house as before, and was satisfied that no 
one had entered it. After some time the sound oc- 
curred again, but when he went out there was noth- 
ing there. At intervals of days, perhaps, he would 
hear the step, and he made a study of it. He knew 
how many steps were in the flight of stairs (of 
course he did!) and he counted. The step went to 
the bottom, and then stopped. Since he could see 
nothing, he went out in the dark and stood listen- 



1848-1851 115 

ing silently on tlie lauding. After some time, the 
steps began again. He followed, noiselessly, and 
waited, and heard them pass him in the darkness. 
He stretched out his arms and swept the walls with 
his hands, but they encountered nothing. But he 
did not relax his investigations. He had a scientific 
cast of mind, and had no superstitions, and finally 
he carried his searches to the little room opening on 
the landing, where some winter vegetables w^ere 
stored, and there found the ghost. There was a 
pile of sweet potatoes rapidly diminishing. A mouse 
had gnawed a hole through the door large enough 
to allow the passage of a potato, and with the string 
end in his mouth he would jump from step to step, 
pulling the potato after him. At the appearance of 
a light, or any sound, he would crouch in the corner 
in the shadow of the steps, and he and his potatoes 
were overlooked by an observer who expected to see 
something more portentous. Mr. Pendleton knew 
how to tell this story. 

In July, 18485 Mr. Pendleton married Clarinda, 
the last daughter of Alexander Campbell by his first 
marriage. Mrs. Lee, the gifted daughter of Gen- 
eral William Nelson Pendleton, and author of his 
memoirs, says, "Early and repeated marriages was 
a Pendleton habit." 

Clarinda Campbell, while younger, was as near as 
a twin sister to the former Mrs. Pendleton. She 
was universally admired for her amiability and love- 
liness. She was very different in her personality 
from her sister Lavinia, while having in common 
the refinement, love of literature, and the deeply 
religious nature which they shared. 



ii6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

In person she was a little below medium height, 
and had a well-rounded figure. Her hair was nearly 
black, the brows and lashes dark, and eyes of pure, 
deep blue; the skin was fair, and the cheeks usually 
showed a rich color. In disposition she was of a 
more quiet, sober, thoughtful habit than her sister. 
Like some sweet young woman described in stories 
of the early Methodists, it was a matter of conscience 
with her not to wear expensive clothing. Espe- 
cially painful to her was the thought that she might 
be seen at church wearing something that some 
other there might wish and could not have. But 
there was nothing austere about her. In person she 
was exquisitely dainty. She was fond of the color 
called buff, and Mr. Pendleton liked to see her wear 
it, because it was becoming. In warm weather she 
¥7ore it in lawns, and with a white lace shoulder 
cape that was then the fashion. Thus robed, with 
her shiny hair, the rose-bloom on her cheek and the 
love-light in her eyes, she had all the beauty and 
the sweetness of a lovely flower. Her life was one 
of thoughtful care for all within her reach, whether 
they were in need of food or raiment, or in any 
kind of sorrow. Persons who knew her, in speak- 
ing of her, touched upon her beauty, but left 
the subject quickly to dwell upon her loveliness of 
character, her angelic nearness to heaven. Her rule 
in the home was very firm, but the essence of ten- 
derness. The little Campbellina, who by Lavinia 
Pendleton had been left to her sister Clarinda, until 
eight years of age, when her step-mother died, had 
never read any book but the Bible on Sunday. In 
the home Mr. Pendleton on Sunday afternoon often 



1848-1851 117 

read aloud, according to his habit, from religious 
literature. Both were fond of the sermons of Robert 
Hall, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Guthrie, and others. There 
was almost no magazine literature at the time. Mr. 
Pendleton was a subscriber to Blackwood, the Edin- 
burgh Review, and the North British, Quarterly 
and Westminster, but these were tabooed on the 
Lord's day. 

Sunday afternoon at Cuckoo was an animated 
time. There was a big dinner and a gracious hos- 
pitality after the manner of old Virginia. The mar- 
ried sons and their wives came from church to dine 
and spend the rest of the day. Usually the preacher 
was there, and other guests; "Dr. Joe" came over 
from the adjoining farm, and sometimes others of 
the large family connection; and when the clan 
gathered, and the abundant meal had been disposed 
of, the gentlemen seated themselves on the capa- 
cious porch, or grassy lawn under the locusts, with 
pipes and cigars and ample twists of home-made 
Louisa leaf, and too often, after some discussion of 
the sermon and services and personnel of the morn- 
ing assembly, strictly secular conversation prevailed 
with the men, politics being given the predominant 
note. It is related of Mrs. Pendleton, when a guest 
at Cuckoo, how she would quietly slip away from 
this group and read the Bible in her room until time 
to join the rest when about to disperse for their 
homes. She shared her reading often with the 
child in a way which to her was in every sense de- 
lightful, taught her Bible stories, and helped her to 
memorize the Scriptures, and rarely ever needed the 
book in her hand to do this. In a letter when av/ay 



ii8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

from home, she described a trip up the Ohio by boat 
with her father, in which she speaks of the weather 
as so cold that she had to leave her stateroom, and 
adds: "I took my Bible and seated myself before a 
good fire in a very comfortable rocking-chair, and 
read an hour or two, and then Brother Burnet came 
in and talked with me a long time. I read and 
talked to him and father all day." 

The hospitality of the Pendleton home at this 
period, as well as under its first mistress, cannot be 
too strongly praised. It was Cuckoo transferred 
from the pines of Louisa to the banks of the Buffalo. 
Abundant and gracious it always was, a Nev/ Testa- 
ment virtue, which was cultivated as assiduously as 
any other in the catalogue. Men and women who 
take into their counsels and fellowship such exam- 
ples as Abraham and Lot, and the Shunamite 
woman, Mary and Martha, and Priscilla and Aquila, 
cannot fail to be imbued with this grace. God, who 
is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all 
his works, is our great pattern. His sun shines and 
his rain falls on the evil as well as on the good. 
His very enemies share his bounty. He gives liber- 
ally to all men, and upbraids not. His Divine hos- 
pitality should keep all hearts from being selfish, 
parsimonious and inhospitable. The Pendleton 
home was a model in the exercise of this virtue, 
which has ever been one of the charms of all Beth- 
any life. 

Another of the domestic graces which was always 
illustrated in this home was kindness to the poor. 
Needy students and needy villagers alike have occa- 
sion to remember this in a thousand instances. In 



1848-1851 119 

modern as in ancient Bethany the Master's words 
apply, "The poor ye have always with you." 
Every man who enjoys God's bounty is commis- 
sioned to be almoner of that bounty. God is the 
giver, life is a partnership, humanity a brotherhood. 
No man understood this better than Mr. Pendleton. 
The weak, helpless, sick, suffering, unfortunate of 
every class, always found in him a benefactor. An 
incident illustrates, though oddly, Mr. Pendleton's 
place in the confidence of the poor. A man, a day 
laborer, whose weapons were the spade and mat- 
tock, honest and industrious, and who had a wife and 
several children, and had frequently worked for him, 
one day came to him in all seriousness and asked to 
sell himself to him. It was on the ground that he 
often had a hard time to make a living for himself 
and family, and that if Mr. Pendleton owned him, 
he could then know that he and they would always 
be taken care of in sickness or in health. He had 
come with a mind made up, after mature delibera- 
tion, and argued persistently a good while against 
the Professor's effort to show him that such a thing 
could not be. 

The confidence and affection of the poor he 
always commanded. Soon after his last marriage 
his wife gave a children's party, and had a gift for 
all the children named for him. She found the 
woods full of them, and this before the gift was 
mentioned. At one house an old woman told her 
that she h^d named her son William after Mr. Pen- 
dleton, and as she did not know what the K stood 
for, she just took a good Bible name and called him 
"William Kamaliel"! 



120 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

When the attempt was last made, in 1880, to set 
fire to the college, in which the incendiaries suc- 
ceeded in burning the end which contained the 
society halls, a poor man in the village was sus- 
pected, and feeling against him ran so high that a 
warrant Vv^as issued for his arrest. He came to Mr. 
Pendleton — the President of the college — and asked 
him to go on his bond! And Mr. Pendleton did. 
The man was exonerated later. No man was ever 
consulted by more and different people, and upon 
more and different matters, and he had a patient 
hearing for every one, and went religiously into 
their affairs, as he did into everything he undertook. 

The second Mrs. Pendleton had two children, 
William Campbell Pendleton, and an infant, Lavinia, 
who survived her but twelve days. This lovely 
spirit traveled out of the body January loth, 1851. 
Mr. Campbell said of her: "So far as my recollec- 
tions extend, she never merited nor received from 
me a frown or a reproof. From the day of her bap- 
tism to the day of her death she seemed to have but 
one supreme aim in all that she designed and in all 
that she undertook, and that was to honor her Re- 
deemer in her station and relations in life, in the 
discharge of every personal and social duty." Sam- 
uel Church wrote of her: "She lived for heaven, 
and has gone there; she loved the Lord, and now 
enjoys him; she delighted in his worship here, and 
in the society of saints, and now unites with spirits 
of the just made perfect in their unceasing and rap- 
turous ascriptions of praise to Him that sits upon 
the throne, and to the Lamb." James Wallace 
writes Mr. Pendleton from Nottingham, England, 



1848-1851 121 

of her beautiful character, her presence, manner, 
spirit and conversation, and the delight they had in 
her visit there. Mr. Pendleton's words are beauti- 
ful and inexpressibly tender. He feels that her 
father's Letters from Europe addressed to her in the 
Harbinger had made her widely known, and the 
public, with her large circle of personal friends, 
would wish to know of her, and, while shrinking 
from any obtrusion of his grief upon others, he 
would meet this desire. He quotes from Cicero on 
friendship that "no man who possesses a proper 
firmness of mind will suffer his misfortunes, how 
heavily soever they may press on his heart, to inter- 
rupt his duties of any kind," and declared he has 
sometimes felt almost forced to yield to the pressure 
of his afHictions. 

"It is a blessed thing," he says, "to be born with 
a virtuous soul — a soul in harmony with all truth, 
attuned to all excellence, and in sympathy with 
everything that is beautiful, lovely and good. It 
moves through the world like a life-giving light, 
and throws its joy upon everything in its way. It 
loves the truth from an innate congeniality, and de- 
lights in goodness, because its nature is peace. It 
turns from the noisy haunts of human dissipation, 
and pauses in the hovel of want, over the bed of 
suffering, or by the side of affliction. Its tears re- 
fresh the arid wastes of despair, and paint a rainbow 
for hope. The accidents of fortune or of fame are 
alike indifferent to it. It looks beyond the form to 
the essence, and, in love only with the true and the 
good, finds in their immutability no disappointment. 
Stayed upon these, which change not, it is an house 



122 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

built upon a rock — tli« storms may come and beat 
upon it, but it falls not. Such is a virtuous soul; 
such was Clarinda's. As such she lives in the ad- 
miration of her companions, in the gratitude of the 
afflicted, and in the imitation of all. 

"Her filial feelings were so mingled witb venera- 
tion that they assumed rather the form of piet}/' than 
a mere natural affection. Few daughters have lived 
to her age of whom a father could truthfully say, 
'She never merited nor received from me a frown 
or a reproof. ' Her obedience sprang from admira- 
tion and love, and in it she was happy. The offices 
of duty under the warmth of her affection quickened 
into life, and became a delight and a joy. The 
youngest and last of five sisters, fair and lovely as 
herself, she strove to embalm their loveliness in her 
admiring heart, and out of its abundance were ever 
acted or uttered deeds or words graceful and gra- 
cious as they were benevolent and kind. Their ex- 
amples seemed ever before her, pictured to the mind 
like present spirits, with whom she might commune 
through the sense of faith as with the living. And 
are they not around us, in our waking and sleeping 
thoughts, as the lightning in the cloud, moving and 
guiding it, yet invisible till the crash in which it 
mingles and is one? So she believed, and her faith 
became as knowledge, shaping the current of her 
life and sweetening its sorrows. Of her love for me 
it is scarcely fitting that I should speak. To say 
that it was single, true, deep, superior to all opinion,, 
and pure as virtue's essence, would be saying much, 
yet how little towards the full expression of my 
heart's whole estimation! A love like hers can only 



1848-1851 123 

be understood by one who bas enjoyed and lost it; it 
cannot be pictured in words. I knew its power — 
enjoyed its triumphs, but, alas, now no more save in 
memory! I must utter my gratitude and suffer my 
loss. God give me strength! 

"Her religion was older than mine. She never 
knew the time when she did not feel herself a child 
of her father's and her mother's God. If it was not 
natural, it Vv^as her second and her stronger nature, 
ere she knew or thought or felt otherwise. No 
cloud of disbelief ever darkened her soul; no vacuum 
of unbelief ever opened it to the invasion of doubt, 
but, seeing all things through parental eyes, heaven 
and God and Christ were a reality to her faith before 
the meaning of the terms was half apprehended by 
her reason. From a child she knew the Scriptures; 
knew not only the words, but the things they sym- 
bolized, by a faith which actualized every precept 
and substantialized every hope. It has been my 
good fortune to know many pious Christians, but I 
have known none in whom there was more to sat- 
isfy the mind of the certain indwelling presence of 
the Spirit of God. It was seen in her countenance, 
heard in her conversation, and manifested in her 
good works, so that others, seeing her, were led to 
glorify God. 

"I said her religion was older than mine. 'Twas 
more perennial, too, for her soul had not upon it the 
impress of early impiety as mine had; and thus, 
while the thoughts of other days would sometimes 
come luring across my mind, and old ambitions 
wake, as from slumber, to tempt me back to the 
world, before her vision there always beamed the 



124 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

steady liglit of celestial scenes, and honors unfading 
in the heavens. Ought I not to acknowledge with 
gratitude the sustaining aid which her faith ever 
gave to mine? 

" 'And pray, lest the stroke which has torn us apart, 
From the faith of a Christian may sever my heart.' 

"I may not prolong these grateful memories. It 
would be a pleasing theme for me to tell how, 

" 'From infancy through childhood, up to youth. 

And thence to prime of womanhood she pass'd — blest 

With all the sweet and sacred ties of life: 

The prayerful love of parents, pride of friends, 

Prosperity and health and ease; the aids 

Of learning, social converse with the good 

And gifted, and her heart all lit with love 

Like the rolling sea with living light; 

Hopeful and generous and earnest; rich 

In commune with high spirits, loving truth 

And wisdom for their own divinest selves; 

Conning the words of wisdom, heaven-inspired. 

As on the soul, in pure, effectual ray. 

The bright, transparent atoms, thought by thought, 

Fall fixed forevermore; how thus her days 

Through sunny noon, or mooned eve, or night, 

Star-armied, shining through the deathless air. 

All radiantly elapsed, in good or joy.' 

"But I must pause, to feel she is no more! no more 
to me in time! to look upon her as now with anoth- 
er, whose love, with mine, she shared on earth, and 
still enjoys in heaven. They are gone — both of 
them gone from me — but that they feel an interest 
in me still, I will bind as a buckler round my faith, 
and cherish with my life." 

On the simple stone, now gray with time, which 
marks the last earthly resting place of this lovely 
Christian woman, are these words: "If it were not 



1848-1851 125 

that the praise of monuments is regarded as little 
more than the soothing flattery of friends, we would 
be wanting in words to express all that should justly 
be inscribed upon this stone; for there is no grace of 
person or of heart that she did not wear as a birth- 
right. But we need not engrave her praise here: in 
the gratitude of the poor whom she blessed; in the 
memory of the Christian friends — to whom she was 
a model; in the cherished affection of those whom, 
in the more intimate relation of sister, daughter, 
mother, wife, she cheered by her word and encour- 
aged by her example, — in these is her memorial 
written and the treasure of her worth preserved." 
The death of Mr. Pendleton's wife was to him a 
sore experience. This sorrov/, together with his un- 
usual labors in connection with the college, serious- 
ly affected his health. He was taken ill and threat- 
ened with consumption. His case was given up as 
hopeless; he had several hemorrhages and was put 
to bed. His brother, Dr. Philip B. Pendleton, vis- 
ited him. A consultation of physicians was held, 
and Dr. Phil was advised to tell him that they 
saw no hope of his recovery. Dr. Phil accord- 
ingly told him their conclusion, but also said he 
had observed, from all the doctors had told him of 
the history of the case, that he had been allowed to 
lie all the time upon one side, and he thought the 
symptoms which they regarded as indicating a fatal 
termination, were probably or possibly due to solidi- 
fication of blood from this cause; that to get up and 
move about was the only chance for life — supposing 
his diagnosis to be correct — but that he considered 
the experiment by all means worth making. For 



126 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Mr. Pendleton to be told this from a source in 
which he had so much confidence, was for him to 
determine on making the effort, at whatever risk or 
pain. The first day he fainted from weakness. His 
most devoted friends and nurses protested against 
his course, but he persisted. Finally he got as far 
as his sleigh and took a ride. After a time he 
started south, v/ent to New Orleans, and in the 
spring followed the strawberries northward by way 
of Cuckoo, to his home. 

* Mr. Pendleton's cure was accomplished by his 
own indomitable energy. His pluck saved him. 
Thousands, at such a time, give up and die. Will- 
power works wonders when all medicines fail. 
When Sunset Cox, the gifted Commoner, was ill in 
Washington with typhoid fever, he said the sight of 
a picture on the wall representing life-savers fight- 
ing breakers in a life-boat to rescue the crew of a 
wrecked vessel, helped him to pull through the crisis 
of the disease. The story of the two frogs, the 
optimist and pessimist amphibian, is well in point. 
They fall into the can of milk. The pessimist gives 
up at once and goes to the bottom, wrong side up. 
The optimist kicks and struggles for existence, and 
morning finds him safely landed on the print of new- 
made butter, which he has churned into form by his 
strenuous effort. This persistency all through Mr. 
Pendleton's life was a marked characteristic. Some 
have quoted, in reference to him, Cicero's phrase, 
^''Cum dignitate otium.''^ He no doubt enjoyed 
such leisure, but never was there a more indefat- 
igable worker. He had immense will power, and 
no man was more tenacious and determined when he 



1848-1851 127 

once set his mind on the accomplishment of any 
worthy object. 

How wide the application of this thought! "An 
ounce of pluck," said Garfield, "is worth a pound 
of luck." "The elect," said Beecher, "are who- 
soever will; the non-elect are whosoever won't." 
Whatever you wish, that you are. Every man 
stamps his value on himself — is made great or little 
by his own will. The world always makes way for 
a man with a determined purpose in him. Resolu- 
tion, determination, decision, are elements of char- 
acter of the highest order. Where there is energy, 
there is life; where it is not, there is feebleness, help- 
lessness, despondency, irremedial failure. Impossible 
is a blockhead's word. Fail is not good English. 
Determination to attain is often attainment itself. 
Stonewall Jackson, Lee's greatest lieutenant, was at 
West Point remarkable simply for indefatigable ap- 
plication, persistence, pluck. When a task was set 
him, he never left it until he mastered it. Again 
and again, when called upon to answer questions in 
recitation, he would reply, "I have not yet looked 
at it — been engaged in mastering the recitation of 
yesterday." The result w^as, he graduated seven- 
teen in a class of seventy. In the whole class not a 
boy to whom Jackson, at the outset, was not inferior 
in knowledge and attainment; at the end of the 
race only sixteen ahead of him. He had outstripped 
fifty-three, and if the course had been five years in- 
stead of four, he would, no doubt, have distanced 
them all. It is the soul that has staying qualities 
that wins. Blessed is the man that gets up and 
keens movinsf. 



CHAPTER XII 
FIRST NATIONAI. CONVENTION 

The most important event in tlie history of the 
Disciples, next to the founding of Bethany College, 
was the organization of the American Christian Mis- 
sionary Society. This was in the city of Cincinnati, 
October 24th, 1849. ^^i'- Campbell was elected 
president. Mr. Pendleton attended this convention, 
was chosen one of the vice-presidents, and reported 
its proceedings for the Harbinger. "We met," he 
says, "not for the purpose of enacting ecclesiastical 
laws nor to interfere with the true and scriptural in- 
dependence of the churches, but to consult about 
the best ways for giving efficiency to our power and 
to devise such methods of co-operation in the great 
work of converting and sanctifying the world as our 
combined counsels, under the guidance of Provi- 
dence, might suggest and approve. More than one 
hundred and fifty names were enrolled, and nearly 
or quite as many churches were represented. It 
was an interesting occasion, and the spirit-felt earn- 
estness, which pervaded the body during the long 
sessions of four successive days, showed that it was 
regarded as a solemn convocation on the great and 
sublime concerns of the Christian kingdom." The 
primary object, he says, was "to devise some scheme 
for a more effectual proclamation of the Gospel in 
destitute places, both at home and abroad." 

Mr. Pendleton in his report gives the constitution 

128 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 129 

in full, which declares, "The object of the Society- 
shall be to promote the spread of the Gospel in des- 
titute places of our own and foreign lands." The 
plan of organization is with Life Directors, Life 
Members and Annual Delegates, the basis being one 
hundred dollars, twenty dollars, and ten dollars re- 
spectively. A President, twenty Vice-Presidents, a 
Treasurer, Corresponding Secretary and Recording 
Secretary are provided for, twenty-five Managers, 
together with the Officers and Life Directors, consti- 
tuting the Executive Board. This instrument was 
adopted amid great enthusiasm. "In a few min- 
utes, when opportunity was given for persons to be- 
come members under the constitution," says Mr. 
Pendleton, "fifty-two were entered as Life Members 
and eleven as Life Directors, making $2,140 sub- 
scribed in one evening by members of the Conven- 
tion alone to this most benevolent and laudable en- 
terprise." 

While the constitution was under discussion, Mr. 
Pendleton offered this resolution, which was unani- 
mously adopted: "Resolved: That the Missionary 
Society contemplated by this action be presented to 
the brethren as the chief object of importance 
among our benevolent enterprises." The Commit- 
tee who reported the constitution were John O'Kane, 
J. T. Johnson, H. D. Palmer, Walter Scott, John T. 
Powell and Dr. L. L- Pinkerton. The instrument 
has twelve articles, and the name of the new organ- 
ization was fixed as The American Christian Mis- 
sionary Society. 

The personnel of this important gathering was a 
distinguished one. Besides those already mentioned, 



130 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

such names appear in the report as D. S. Burnet, T. 
M. Allen, Talbot Fanning, Dr. Daniel Hooke, Dr. 
K. Parmly, Francis Dungan, Richard Hawley, 
Dr. James T. Barclay, J. J. Moss, M. Mobley, Wil- 
liam Rouzee, James Challen, Thurston Crane, James 
and Andrew Leslie, C. A. Gould, Samuel Church, 
R. L. Coleman, William Morton, P. S. Fall, Elijah 
Goodwin, Carroll Kendrick, L. H. Jamison, J. B. 
New, A. D. Fillmore, W. H. Hopson, C. L. Loos, 
George Campbell, R. C. Rice, Dr. John Shackleford 
— a glorious apostolic company. 

A select Committee to report resolutions on mat- 
ters of general importance to the church, was ap- 
pointed as follows: D. S. Burnet, John Young, S. 
Ayers, H. D. Palmer, J. T. Johnson, C. Kendrick, 
W. K. Pendleton, Walter Scott, J. T. Barclay and 
John O'Kane. After a liberal use of the term 
"whereas," the report read: "Resolved: That we 
respectfully recommend to the churches the pro- 
priety of forming among themselves, State and Dis- 
trict meetings to be held annually and quarterly, in 
such a way as may seem expedient; and that the 
churches in their primary assemblies, be requested 
to send to their annual meetings by their messen- 
gers the number of members in their respective 
congregations, with the names of the post-offices. 

"Resolved: That we strongly recommend to the 
churches the duty and importance of organizing and 
establishing Sunday-schools in every congregation. 

"Resolved: That a committee of five be ap- 
pointed to make out and to publish a catalogue of 
such books as would be suitable for present use." 

The Committee ordered in the last resolution, con- 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 131 

sisted of D. S. Burnet, J. J. Moss, C. Kendrick, 
Walter Scott and W. K. Pendleton. 

Having just returned, greatly fatigued, from his 
European tour and being sorely afflicted in the death 
of his son, Wyckliff, which occurred during his ab- 
sence, Mr. Campbell was ill at the time the conven- 
tion was organized and unable to be present. He 
sent for Mr. Pendleton and told him he wished him 
to go and represent him. Mr. Pendleton demurred, 
suggesting that other leaders in the movement 
would probably be little disposed to listen to one so 
much younger than themselves, and whom they 
would regard as so little entitled by his record, to be 
heard in their deliberations. Mr. Campbell insisted, 
expressing all confidence in his being able to convey 
his messages with all needed force to the convention. 
And so he went. This was how he became a charter 
member. He found many prepared to push some wild 
scheme or another, involving publications, etc., such 
as some already well-established organization might 
afford to carry on. He seems to have been the clear- 
headed, cool-headed one, to check the exuberant and 
speculative, and prove helpful on the side of the 
more practical; to have been the wise and careful 
one in counsel, and strong and safe in argument, 
favoring the adoption of feasible propositions. 

It will be seen that Mr. Pendleton had an impor- 
tant part in this memorable assembly, which laid the 
foundations of all our organized missionary work. 
With this great purpose he was ever in most loyal 
accord. No man for half a century was more potent 
in the missionary councils of the brotherhood; no 
face and form more strikingly noted in the great 



132 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

missionary conventions; no voice more ready and 
eloquent in appeal for this liigh and holy cause; no 
counsel more wise and wholesome, or more cheer- 
fully heeded by his brethren; no hand more gener- 
ous in giving. His presence in any missionary as- 
sembly was always felt to be a benediction. 

The years from 1848 to 1851 were full of activity 
both in the College and on the editorial staff. In 
the Harbinger for '48, his first contribution is on 
"Christmas Day," in which he discusses the history 
and the rational method of observing this institu- 
tion. He contributes every m.onth his able series on 
* 'Discipline," in which he treats the whole matter 
of church organization, and church order and wor- 
ship, from the New Testament standpoint. Time is 
taken also to write up the scheme of scholarships for 
Bethany. The annual commencement of the Col- 
lege is reported as unusually successful. An 
alumnus, with no sympathy "with unmeaning pro- 
cessions of militia," seeks "the rural retreats of 
Bethanj^ College and the higher enjoyments of that 
rich, moral and intellectual feast always presented in 
its annual commencements." He speaks of the 
addresses as "elegant and chaste in composition, 
comprehensive and noble in thought, and breathing 
the loftiest strains of morality and religion," The 
original salutatories in Greek and Latin, he thinks, 
give high proof, both of the fine classic attainments 
of their authors and the thoroughness of instruction 
afforded by the College; and he cannot withhold the 
opinion that Bethany College is destined to rise still 
above its already high reputation; and as it becomes 
better known, be also more and more appreciated for 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 133 

the combined excellencies of its location, discipline 
and instruction. No place could be more bealtliy or 
free from all demoralizing influences; no discipline 
could be more parental and efficient; and the course 
of instruction, scientific, literary, moral and reli- 
gious, is without exception. 

Alexander Procter is one of the twelve graduates 
in the class of '48, and delivers the valedictory. A 
chair of Sacred History as ''A perpetual chair in 
this Seminary" is suggested, a movement set on 
foot to raise $20,000 for its endowment, and Mr. 
Campbell urges it upon the attention of the friends 
of the institution. 

Bethany's eighth session is also a very prosperous 
one and its graduates some of the most eminent 
men that have gone out from its halls. There were 
a hundred and twenty-nine students representing 
half of the States, and England, Scotland and Ire- 
land, as well. Mr. Campbell thinks it an advan- 
tage to young men in their college course, to form 
acquaintance with their "juvenile contemporaries" 
from various sections of the country and "hand 
in hand to clamber up the steeps of Mount Helicon, 
breathe its pure air, drink its sweet waters, and 
bathe in the pure fountains of the Muses: and side 
by side to visit the Acropolis, the capital of Attica, 
the Palatine Hill, the battlefields of Salamis, Platea, 
and Micale, pay homage to the Alexandrian Geome- 
trician, to the Sages of Greece and Rome, and 
hie away to the Holy I^and, the capital of Judah's 
kings, make their visits to Mount Sinai, and Mount 
Zion and listen to the Jewish lawgiver and the 
Oracles of the Christian King." "Boarding, wash- 



134 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ing, fire, candles, and education" are still listed at 
one hundred and fifty dollars a year. 

This session, we first hear of the connection 
of Professor I^oos with the faculty. The President 
says, "The Primary Department under the tuition 
of Mr. lyoos, was well conducted the last year, and 
much instruction imparted, and well imparted, to the 
youth there." So far the subscriptions and dona- 
tions to the College are 141,634.68 and 133,202.80 
has been collected. The graduating class has but 
seven in it, but among them are J. H. Neville, J. D. 
Pickett, Charles Carleton, and Moses E. Lard. Mr. 
Neville delivers the Latin salutatory, and Mr. Lard, 
the valedictory address. "A Looker-On" who re- 
ports the commencement exercises says of the latter: 
"The valedictory, we think, was quite out of keep- 
ing with the title. The speaker, however, admon- 
ished his hearers, at the outset, that he should 
deviate from the hackneyed themes of such oc- 
casions, and accordingly treated his audience to 
no small amount of playful humor; and his fellow- 
students, from whom he was about to part, with 
many valuable suggestions upon the homely, but 
useful topics of obligation and duty." "Long may 
Bethany College live," concludes this writer, "to 
give the bow of science to truth and train the native 
genius of our country to wing its arrows against the 
hydra forms of error, ignorance and vice!" 

As an illustration of the great kindness of Beth- 
any's faculty to the large number of students that 
are poor in respect to worldly goods, the experience 
of the most noted graduate of this session may be 
mentioned. Moses E. Lard makes public acknowl- 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 135 

edgment of the gratitude lie feels to Mr. Campbell 
and others of his benefactors. *'Four years and four 
months ago, strange, homeless, penniless and un- 
taught, I landed a stranger at Bethany College. It 
was my fixed purpose, though encumbered with the 
responsibilities of a family, to qualify myself for 
more extended and enlightened usefulness. This 
object, the first and nearest to my heart, I wanted 
the means to accomplish." He tells of Mr. Camp- 
bell's letter which brought him to Bethany. "For 
which, and for the disinterested and cordial manner 
in which you have so often aided me when want 
bore heavy on me, I owe you feelings of gratitude 
which I have no power to express." He continues: 
"To my tried friends and brethren in Christ, W. K. 
Pendleton and J. O. Ewing, I am under the strong- 
est obligations. Friends they proved themselves to 
me when I needed friends. They have untied their 
purse-strings and tendered me their gentlemanly aid 
at times and in ways of which I cannot think with- 
out the tear of grateful remembrance starting in my 
eye." 

Again and again this story might be repeated, 
and no man is more affectionately and gratefully 
remembered by scores whose position was similar to 
that of Mr. Lard than W. K. Pendleton. Never was 
any man more considerate of the boy who came, 
green, awkward and plainly clad, unlettered and un- 
kempt, to place himself under the care of this alma 
mater. In Mr. Pendleton he was certain to find 
sympathy and a helpful hand. This has always 
been true of Bethany's teachers and of all the mem- 



136 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

bers of her faculty. It was pre-eminently so of her 
late honored and lamented President. 

During this session of 1849, Mr. Pendleton con- 
tinued his articles on "Discipline" in the Harbin- 
ger, furnishing one each month, and closing Y/ith 
the seventeenth paper. Some of his positions are 
questioned by J. H. Chinn, and he enters into a 
somev/hat lengthy discussion with that brother. At 
the same time a practical case of discipline comes 
up in the Bethany church, involving Vv . F. M. Arny 
and Alexander Hall, and incidentally Mr. Campbell 
himself, and the chief responsibility of its settlement 
devolves upon "W. K. Pendleton, an elder of the 
church at Bethany." 

The year 1850 finds the Harbinger enlarging its 
circulation, not only in the United States, but in 
Great Britain and Australia, and W. K. Pendleton, 
R. Richardson and A. W. Campbell are its cO' 
editors. Mr. Pendleton writes ably on many fruitful 
themes, the Genealogy of Christ, Destructionism, 
Rebaptism, Prayer, and seven more articles on Dis- 
cipline. He discusses the question, "Is Satan yet 
alive?" This last is a playful skit. Jacob Creath, 
Jr., writes that in his travels he finds persons who 
doubt the existence of the devil, and says: "If you 
have heard of his death, or his annihilation, or of 
his disappearance from the dominions of God, please 
inform us through your periodical when and where 
the old gentleman died, and where he is btiried. 
But if you have not heard of his death, please give 
us your reasons for believing he is still alive, and 
where he lives." 

After referring to the views of Zadoc, the Saddu- 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 137 

cees and Faustus Sociniis, Mr. Pendleton says: "In 
speculating upon this subject and analyzing the syl- 
logism of rational inference by which the non-exist- 
ence of the devil is proved, a syllogism occurs to me 
by which I am strengthened in my conviction that 
this story has most likely originated v/ith the devil 
himself. Nor do I think in laying down the prem- 
ises I assume half as much as they do who would 
prove that there is not in fact now nor ever was 
any such being as Satan. The syllogism is this: 

" 'The devil is the father of all lies; 

The report that he does not exist is a lie; 
Therefore the devil is the father of this report.' 

"And this syllogism suggests to me an analogy 
drav/n from natural history which renders my con- 
clusion at least natural. It is drawn from the well- 
known artifice of the cat. When this cunning ani- 
mal has exhausted every other expedient to catch 
the mice, and failed, it will feign to be dead, stretch 
itself at full length, relax its muscles, close its eyes 
and suppress its breathing, till even wiser ones than 
mice v/ill be deceived. It gives forth thus that it is 
dead. The trembling and guilty little mice, eager 
to believe the story and anxious to gratify their 
predatory cravings, trip forth from their holes and, 
in full confidence that Tabby is dead, rush headlong 
across his very remains, and perish in the delusion. 
So we fear it will turn out in the case before us." 

To an old Bethanyite nothing sounds more nat- 
ural than this syllogism. If there was anything the 
President relished it was syllogism. What was end- 
less bother to the neophite in the school of logic was 



138 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

meat and drink to him. Major premise, minor 
premise, middle term, monosyllogism, and polysyl- 
logism, syllogisms, categorical and hypothetical, 
sorites, dilemma, fallacy — these to the befuddled 
youth might be torment and distraction, but they 
were "nuts" to the President. The old problem 
among the stoics, "When a man says 'I lie,' does 
he lie or does he not? If he lies, he speaks the 
truth; if he speaks the truth, he lies," might have 
caused Chrysippus the trouble of writing his six 
books and sent Philetus to his grave, but Mr. Pen- 
dleton reveled in it. Aristotle's dilemma, in reply 
to Protagoras, who maintained that all is illusion, 
and that there is no such thing as truth, saying, 
"Your proposition is true or false; if it is false, then 
you are answered; if true, then there is something 
true, and your proposition fails," was to him an 
endless delight. He could relish better than a din- 
ner at Delmonico's the discussion before King 
James at Cambridge, whether brutes had reason and 
could make syllogisms, and Mr. Preston's argument 
for the affirmative, for which he got his annuity of 
fifty pounds a year: "A hound, when he comes to 
a place where three ways meet, tries one, and then 
another, but finding no scent, runs down the third 
with full cry, concluding that, as the hare had not 
taken either of the first two, she must necessarily 
have taken the third." 

The ninth commencement of Bethany College oc- 
curred July 4th, 1850. The catalogue presented a 
larger number of students than ever before — one 
hundred and forty. Among those receiving the B. A. 
degree were J. W. McGarvey and Thomas Mun- 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 139 

nell, and among the M. A.'s was Charles L. Loos, 
of Wellsburg, West Virginia. Professor Mason re- 
signed the chair of mathematics. G. F. Saltonstall, 
T. M. Allen, Daniel Monroe, Francis D. Dungan, 
William Morton, J. W. Parish, John Curd, William 
Hayden and S. B. Markle were added to the Board 
of Trustees. Among the curiosities of the session is 
this action of the Board: "Resolved, that a fine of 
five cents shall be exacted from every student for 
every time he is absent from class without a satisfac- 
tory excuse, and that said fine be appropriated to 
the purchase of premiums for merit on examination, 
and that each Professor shall collect the fines im- 
posed on his class," 

Mr. Pendleton's sorrow in the death of his second 
wife comes at the opening of the year 1851. His 
first article in the Harbinger, is no doubt inspired by 
this afiiiction; it is on "The Life of Faith." He 
writes also on "Rebaptism," "Septenary Institu- 
tions and the Westminster Review," the "Jeru- 
salem Mission," "The Two Comforters, Fido and 
Logos; or Faith and Reason," and the "Law of Lib- 
erty. ' ' There is also published an address by him 
on "Self-Culture," delivered in Wellsburg, Virginia, 
at the request of the Wellsburg Lyceum, covering 
some twenty pages in the Harbinger. The college 
this year has a hundred and forty-one students. 
George Plattenberg, Kirkland Baxter, A. G. Thomas 
and John C. New are some of the graduates. For 
Mr. Pendleton this year had its griefs and its labors. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CRESCITE ET MULTIPUCAMINI. 

From '52 to '56 Mr. Pendleton writes little for the 
Harbinger. In the year 1852 he seems never to 
have used his quill. His service to the College dur- 
ing this period is constant and the growth of the 
Institution marked. In addition to his duties as 
Vice-President and Professor, he has been filling the 
office of Bursar, until 1855, vv^hen he is made Treas- 
urer to succeed Mr. Campbell. In '52, the Prepara- 
tory Department is abolished. At the annual com- 
mencement that year, J. C. Palmer, A. E. Myers, 
R. Faurot, J. T. T. Hundley, and A. Campbell, Jr., 
are among the twenty-four graduated, Mr. Palmer 
delivering the Latin salutatory, and Mr. Hundley 
the valedictory of the class. There were a hundred 
and fifty-one students. The annual Co-operation 
Meeting of the Churches in the District to which 
Brooke County belonged is held in October at 
Bethany, and W. K. Pendleton is made President. 
He is also appointed chairman of a Central Commit- 
tee on Evangelizing. 

In the volume of the Harbinger for '53, he is 
more active as co-editor, and contributes articles on 
"Nature and Spirit," and the question "What is a 
Good Conscience?" He is metaphysical and shows 
the influence of one of his favorite authors, Cole- 
ridge, "whose genius had thrown its sunlight ray 
into every deep and dark recess of the soul." In 

140 




FACULTY IN THE 50's. 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 141 

tlie paper on "Conscience" after showing the ideas 
of immortality, of freewill, and of God are the most 
abiding realities of the spiritual universe, and the 
relations of reason, conscience and revelation, he 
closes with the words, "O how sacred the obligation 
resting upon us all to fill our souls with the light 
which Cometh from above, and to meditate day 
and night on the law of the I^ord — the only perfect 
standard of rectitude, that we may thus fit our 
hearts for the indwelling of the Spirit, who is the 
only Universal Guide into all truth! Preach the 
word, then, men of God! — Fill the minds and hearts 
of the people with the light and love of the Gospel, 
that thus they may have not only a good but 
a right conscience, and your own work, in the day 
of fiery trial, prove not hay nor stubble, but abide as 
the pure gold upon the everlasting foundation, 
Vi^hich is Jesus Christ." 

The work of the College is steadily growing. 
The scholarship scheme is abandoned. Mr. Camp- 
bell tells us it had not been seized with the avidity 
and forvv^ardness that had been expected. It seemed 
to many to be rather cheapening a college education 
and likely at last to overcrowd the College. The 
endowment of chairs was a plan more practical and 
permanent in its advantages. Different states were 
invited to endow chairs to be named after them, as 
the Kentucky Chair of Sacred History, the Missouri 
Chair of Natural Philosophy, the Illinois Chair of 
Chemistry, the Indiana Chair of Ancient lyanguages, 
and the Virginia and Ohio Chair of Mathematics. 
These five Chairs, says Mr. Campbell, are the essen- 
tials of a college education in its more common 



142 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

acceptation. As soon as these are endowed, a 
Chair of Oriental Literature, Hebrew and Chaldean, 
and one of French, German, Spanish and Italian, 
are to be established. There were fifteen graduates, 
Hanson Boring and W. S. Giltner being among 
them. The President feels again called upon to 
defend the location of the College, and for the first 
time we hear of a B. & O. R. R. "connecting 
us with Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia and 
New York," and the Pittsburg and Cleveland Rail- 
road to Wellsville thirty miles away, a proposed 
road to Wellsburg, and the Hempfield and Wheeling 
road under construction. "Thus Bethany College 
is in a year or two to be surrounded with railroads — 
almost at the focus of Eastern and Western and 
Northern and Southern Railways." He would not 
be so explicit, he declares, "had not a very fluent 
brother in Kentucky, who frequently goes off at half 
cock, and when on foot and his imagination on 
wing, has visions and inspirations over which he 
has no control, as an inducement to concentrate the 
brotherhood of Kentucky, in behalf of Bacon College, 
in speaking of Bethany said that 'as for Bethany, 
it was out of the question — it was so out of the way 
that one could scarcely find it out, and that anyhow, 
its years were numbered with the years of my life.' " 
"As to the perpetuity of Bethany College," declares 
Mr. Campbell, "it is dependent on no one man liv- 
ing, or to live hereafter." 

With the opening of the year '54, Mr. Pendleton 
takes up his pen more vigorously. He discusses in 
the February Harbinger "A Right Conscience," 
and gives an account of the conversion of "Dr. P. 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 143 

B. Mosblech, a protesting priest." This gentleman 
was by birth a German, educated at Mayence and 
Bonn and at one time Professor of I^anguages in tbe 
Royal College at Cologne. He came to America in 
1850 and was priest for a German congregation at 
Wheeling. Some one put in his hand a copy 
of Mr. Campbell's "Christian System," in which he 
became greatly interested. Mr. Pendleton met him 
and invited him to Bethany, and after a short visit 
there, he renounced the Roman Catholic system, 
was baptized by Mr. Campbell and became Professor 
of Hebrew and Modern Languages in the College. 
Mr. Pendleton also writes a very delightful article 
on the "Book of Job." He discusses the Christian 
Publishing Society and for the first time, undertakes 
a "Talk with Children," which be does so well, one 
wonders why lie never wrote again in the same strain. 
The College this year adds greatly to its strength 
by securing Professor Robert Milligan for the Chair 
of Mathematics, made vacant by the resignation 
of Professor Hooke. He had been for years a Pro- 
fessor in Washington College, Pa., and later, in the 
Indiana University at Bloomington. Professor Pen- 
dleton presided at the annual commencement in July, 
and degrees were conferred on seventeen young men, 
among them O. A. Burgess, J. S. I^amar, John 
Shackleford, John F. Rowe, and William M. 
Thrasher. The thirteenth session was a great one. 
In speaking of the graduates the honored Vice- 
President says, "In solid attainments, in literature 
and science, in energy of character, in moral worth 
and Christian integrity, few classes of graduates can 
be compared with them." 



144 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

After the commencement of the College, Mr. 
Pendleton went for his vacation to Virginia. The 
summer was without parallel for heat. It was the 
season of protracted meetings, however, and he 
visited a number of the churches in the State. His 
journey was by B. & O. Railroad to Washington. 
He calls the Capital a busy city of corruption and 
intrigue, of national glory and disgrace. He visited 
first the famous school conducted by James W. 
Goss, near ■ Gordons ville, known as ''Piedmont 
Female Seminary," and, with Mr. Goss, attended a 
protracted meeting at Stony Point Church, where 
A. B. Walthall and John G. Parish were preaching. 
From Stony Point he went to Gilboa, where the first 
congregation of Disciples on the principles of primi- 
tive apostolic Christianity was gathered by Higga- 
son and Bagby, two noble men ostracized under the 
Dover decrees for holding "the heresy of Camp- 
bellism." Here he found R. L<. Coleman and J. M. 
Bagby conducting a series of meetings. From 
Gilboa he went to Salem in the same county, and 
participated in a similar effort with McChesney and 
Flippo. At Louisa C. H. also, there is a revival, 
with Walthall, Parish and Goss as evangelists. 
He speaks of the great ability and zeal of these men, 
who stood as towers of strength to the cause of Christ 
in the Old Dominion. He writes of the discordant 
elements which had tried greatly the brethren and 
of "the vulgar ignorance of Thomasonian Material- 
ism," and declares that these crudities in philosophy 
were laughed at by the better classes of the Greek 
heathen before Christianity was born. 

In company with R. L. Coleman, he attends the 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 145 

Southeast Co-operation in I^unenburg, where he 
meets such men as Hugart, Doswell, and "our 
venerable and devoted old Brother Shelburne. " He 
returns to Richmond; here the cholera was raging, 
business was dull, streets were deserted, and a 
gloomy awe brooded like a spirit of fear over the 
city. The next day found him again in Louisa 
''seated in the genial circles of my kindred accord- 
ing to the flesh, and enjoying the richest blessings 
of a favoring Providence— health, abundance, and 
genial society, Christian converse and brotherly 
love"; and a few days later he takes part in another 
protracted meeting at Garrett's, Louisa, with Cole- 
man and Goss. He closes his account of this trip as 
follows: ''A night's rest under my mother's roof, a 
few words of parting with friends, kindred, and my 
dear little boy, and I was once more on the cars for 
Bethany. My brother. Dr. P. B. Pendleton, and 
his lady, and my daughter Campbellina accompanied 
me to Washington city, and thence to Baltimore, 
where we parted— they on board the Bay steamer 
for Old Point Comfort, and I for the cars of the B. & 
O. R. R. In twenty-four hours I was among the 
green and fertile hills of Buffalo at my own quiet 
home, preserved under the ever watchful and un- 
wearied loving kindness of our Father in Heaven, to 
mingle my voice again with that of His servants at 
Bethany in praising and thanking Him for His 
goodness and care in keeping me through so many 
dangers and perils of travel and disease, and giving 
me yet time and opportunity to do His will on earth 
as it is done in Heaven. Grace, mercy and peace 



10 



146 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

unto all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and wait 
His coming." 

In company with Dr. Richardson, Mr. Pendleton 
attended also the annual meeting of the Disciples of 
Cuyahoga County at Bedford, Ohio, in September. 
The meetings were held in a tent seating 4,000 peo- 
ple, and great multitudes came to hear. Dr. J. P. 
Robison presided, and Bentley was there and the 
Haydens, Moss, Green, Errett, Lanphear, Church, 
Jones and others who did valiant service for the 
King in those days. The meetings continued four 
days and nights, saints were comforted, edified and 
cheered, and sinners converted to Christ. Isaac 
Errett did the baptizing. On the Lord's day, 1,500 
Disciples sat down to celebrate the Lord's death. 
It was an impressive scene — no levity, no haste, no 
confusion, no oversight, the deepest solemnity per- 
vaded the vast assembly. It was indeed "a joint 
communion and participation of the body and blood 
of Christ to the profit of a self-examining people." 
Errett made an appeal for missions, and $1,000 was 
pledged. "What State in this favored Union," Mr. 
Pendleton asks, "is doing like Ohio? From all 
that we can learn, she will expend not less than 
$10,000 this year in this work of general State Mis- 
sions." This was in 1854. 

In October the missionary anniversaries were held 
in Cincinnati. Mr. Pendleton was present. The 
sessions were held in the Walnut Street Chapel for 
four days. He expresses himself as greatly disap- 
pointed at the attendance. With the exception of 
James Challen, of Philadelphia, three brethren from 
Illinois, and himself, only Ohio and the bordering 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 147 

States of Kentucky and Indiana were represented, 
and at no time were the pews of the chapel more 
than half occupied. The first day was given to the 
sessions of the American Christian Bible Society. 
The receipts for the year were $1,286.43; $889.80 
was paid over to the Bible Union, $70 for the pur- 
chase of the Revised Version, and $30 to colporters, 
expenses $396.63. It does not appear from the re- 
port that any Bibles were distributed, and when we 
consider that nearly the whole benevolent operation 
of this Society is in the amount paid over to the 
Bible Union, and this has been done at an expense 
of about 28 per cent, of the collections, Mr. Pendle- 
ton questions whether it would not be better to leave 
this field entirely to the Bible Union and its agents. 
It was resolved to continue the Society and its 
agents, and that the funds contributed among the 
"Christian Disciples" for this purpose should pass 
through the hands of the Society in order that they 
might appear in the report "a more full exponent of 
the liberalit]/ of our brethren in sustaining the 
cause." Mr. Pendleton opposed this action vigor- 
ously, characterized the latter part of it as "too nar- 
row and sectarian for the great heart of Christian- 
ity," and said it looked as if we were determined to 
let our right hand know what our left hand was 
doing. 

D. S. Burnet was President of the Society, and 
devoted his address to the discussion of the impor- 
tance and necessity of a revised version of the 
Scriptures, confirming his hearers in the conviction 
that this was the present great work of the church. 

The second day's session of the Convention was 



148 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

devoted to the business of the A. C. M. S. The 
Treasurer reported balance in the treasury last year 
$3,445.40, collections for the year $3,403.57, mak- 
ing $6,848.97; of whjch were expended during the 
year for foreign missions $1,709.77; home missions, 
$515, and expenses $1,527.16; in all $3,751.93 for 
both home and foreign work, at an expense of 45 
per cent. Mr. Pendleton thinks the expenses of 
these operations heavy, yet unavoidable, while the 
brethren require so much begging for so small a 
return of liberality. The Corresponding Secretary 
of this organization is D. S. Burnet, who reported 
the Society as doing little or nothing in mission 
fields. The Jerusalem Mission is suspended, the 
work in Liberia, by the death of Cross, had failed, 
and no regular system of domestic missions is sus- 
tained; the destitution on the field at home was 
great, and letters were read from Memphis, Tenn., 
from Ohio, and from Washington Territory, as sam- 
ples of appeals received by the Secretary. 

It was the age of the Resolutions of the Apostles 
so far as missions were concerned. Mr. Pendleton 
reports a number of these interesting forms of words 
which were acted upon with great unanimity. On 
motion of E. Goodwin: "Resolved, that we com- 
mend the Liberia Mission to the favorable consider- 
ation of the Board of this Society, and request said 
Board to endeavor to secure an efficient missionary 
for that field as soon as possible." On motion of 
D. S. Burnet: "Resolved, that we commend to the 
attention of the Board the establishment of a mis- 
sion in Germany as soon as possible." On motion 
of James Challen: "Resolved, that we commend to 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 149 

the Board the establishment of a mission in France, 
and that Brother Charles Louis Loos be corresponded 
with in regard to taking charge of the same." On 
motion of Isaac Errett: "Resolved, that the Cor- 
responding Secretary be requested to make inquiry 
into the expediency of establishing a mission in 
China, and report at the next annual meeting." On 
motion of W. K. Pendleton: "Resolved, that the 
Board be instructed to establish as speedily as prac- 
ticable as full and efficient a corps of missionary 
laborers in the various fields of the Society's opera- 
tions as the funds of the Society will allow," 

It will be seen that this Convention was full of 
most excellent resolutions; and when it is remem- 
bered that these men were only laying foundations, 
that the people they represented had so recently 
sprung into being as a distinct body, that they were 
in many cases even without houses of worship, that 
their hands were full to overflovv'ing with the local 
demands upon their means and ministry, it is not to 
be wondered at that they could do little more than 
resolve and pave the way for such glorious gather- 
ings and harvest homes as the memorable Jubilee in 
Cincinnati in 1899. Walter Scott delivered the an- 
niversary address on this occasion, and Mr. Pendle- 
ton writes that he performed his task in a manner 
truly worthy of the catholic greatness of his Chris- 
tian head and heart. 

The third and fourth days of the meeting were 
given to the affairs of the much-discussed Publica- 
tion Society. Says Mr. Pendleton: "Our estimate 
of its claims upon the support and encouragement of 
the brethren was in no degree enhanced by what we 



I50 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

witnessed during its anniversary." Five members 
were appointed to investigate certain charges against 
its management, but their report was unsatisfactory. 
He dismisses it with the declaration: * 'Should this 
Society succeed in its purposes, perhaps we shall be 
more inclined to consider its deserts when we begin 
to be saddled with a creed in the form of an author- 
ized literature and feel ourselves trammeled in our 
religious freedom by the formulae of the Publication 
Society Theology." Besides this report of the anni- 
versary meetings, Mr. Pendleton has but one article 
in the Harbinger for '55, and that the first of his 
series on "The Church." 

Bethany's fourteenth commencement was a very 
successful one. Eighteen young men were gradu- 
ated, among them Joseph King, I. N. Carman, R. L. 
Ware and J. W. Horner. The first named delivered 
the Latin address, and the last was valedictorian. 
Dr. J. P. Robison, Isaac Errett and R. L. Coleman 
were present. The reports of the college work for 
the session are full of encouragement. It is an- 
nounced, among other things, that as facilities for 
reaching Bethany are now almost entirely independ- 
ent of the stage of water in the Ohio River, students 
will be expected on the premises promptly at the 
opening on the first Monday in October. Professor 
Pendleton is made treasurer of the college to suc- 
ceed Mr. Campbell. In December he writes: "The 
unusual accession of students to Bethany College 
this session for a time overflowed our accommoda- 
tions. The faculty were compelled to fit up new 
apartments. These are now ready, and we can ac- 
commodate some eighteen or twenty more students." 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 151 

With the opening of the fifteenth session, there is 
some disturbance in the college over the slavery 
question, and ten young men left the institution. 
The faculty acted with great promptness and firm- 
ness, and no serious results occurred. Mr. Camp- 
bell announces at the opening of the year 1856, 
"The college was never in a more healthy and pros- 
perous condition." In November he visits the Vir- 
ginia State Convention in Richmond, and delivers 
an address on Education, and receives subscriptions 
equal to $1,300 toward the Virginia Chair, for which 
the Virginia churches had resolved to raise $15,000. 

He stops in Louisa County on this trip, and writes: 
"At Cuckoo we had a very refreshing repose of two 
days among our friends and connections, the Pendle- 
tons of Louisa. Mother Pendleton, now some sev- 
enty years old, yet lives in good health of mind and 
body at the old homestead in the county with her 
son. Dr. Philip B. Pendleton, and family. There we 
had a very social meeting of the whole family of 
Pendletons, which reminded me of the clans of good 
auld Scotland. We also spent a very pleasant day 
with Dr. Joseph Pendleton, in her immediate vicin- 
ity. On departing we were accompanied by Dr. 
Philip B. Pendleton to Tolersville." On this tour 
in Eastern Virginia, which was of two months' 
duration, Mr. Campbell also visits, among other 
places, Yorktov^n, where he tells us he was met by 
Dr. Frederick W. Power, and taken to Grafton 
meeting-house, some six miles from the river. He 
describes the battlefield where the British lion 
crouched to the American eagle, with only two or 
three decaying Lombardy poplars marking the spot 



152 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

of Cornwallis's surrender to the hero of the Revolu- 
tion, and tells of his address at Grafton on Paul's 
Letter to Titus, "ilfter meeting," he says, "we 
dined with our brother, Dr. Robert H. Power, who 
lives a short distance from the Grafton meeting- 
house, and on the next day enjoyed the hospitalities 
of Dr. Frederick Power in his home, one of the ven- 
erable edifices built more than a century since by 
the English before the Revolution, of materials im- 
ported from British soil.. We met here the sister of 
Dr. Power, the widow of my son in the faith, the 
much-beloved and esteemed Henry F. McKenney, a 
graduate of Bethany College, and a devoted laborer 
in the Lord's vineyard. We received a generous 
sum at Grafton for Bethany, among the subscrip- 
tions $ioo from our very energetic brother, J. B. 
Gary, of Hampton, formerly a teacher in Bethany 
College." 

Mr. Pendleton acts as President of the College 
during this extended absence of Mr. Campbell. He 
delivers a very able and learned address before the 
Bible Revision Association at Louisville, Ky., the 
loth of April, which is published in full in the Har- 
binger. He contributes articles on "Religion," on 
the "Second Epistle of Peter," on the "American 
Bible Union," on "Self-Government," and writes 
the most stirring words on "Missions" that can be 
found in the early history of the organized mission- 
ary work of the Disciples. Commenting on the 
action of the Ohio State Convention in discontinu- 
ing the American Bible Society, he makes this prop- 
osition: "That a general convention of the breth- 
ren throughout the Union assemble at Cincinnati 



CRESCITE ET MULTIPLICAMINI 153 

at the next anniversary of our Society to consider 
the propriety of so remodeling their entire opera- 
tions as to reduce them to the single work of home 
and foreign missions, with a general recommenda- 
tion to the brethren to co-operate directly in all 
matters connected with the publication and circula- 
tion of the Bible, with the American Bible Union." 
*'It is high time," he declares, "that we were doing 
something, both at home and abroad, in this mighty 
field of heathenish darkness. Brother Barclay and 
his missionary family have come home from Jerusa- 
lem and the solitary shepherd, Brother Dennis, 
whom he left to look after the little flock he had 
gathered, is suffering from neglect and want; emi- 
gration, like a mighty gulf stream, is pouring its 
floods into the fertile prairie lauds of our expanding 
Republic and no heralds of the Gospel are sent 
along to raise the torch of eternal life over the 
moral wastes of these fast filling empires. Our 
Missionary Society is practically dead — we say it 
with tears, it is practically dead! and shall we not 
revive it, shake off the grave cerements that hold it 
in a temporary but impotent entombment, and call 
it forth in beautiful garments as the beloved of the 
church? Yes, brethren, let us awake to our duty." 
The fifteenth session of the college closed under 
the most favorable auspices. Never before had 
there been so large an attendance of students, and 
never such an interesting reunion of alumni from all 
over the country. Encouraged by the prosperous 
condition of the institution, the Trustees determined 
to constitute an additional professorship, and formal- 
ly establish a Chair of Modern I^anguages. Among 



154 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the twenty-seven young men wlio received tlie 
graduating honors, such names appear as A. M. 
Lay, John A. Brooks, B. W. Johnson, James Atkins, 
and W. S. Russell. The work of the year was most 
gratifying; the prospect for the future most flatter- 
ing; the growth of alma mater in all its depart- 
ments is an occasion of pride and thankfulness. 



CHAPTER XIV 

1855 

A Bethany student, through the kind recommen- 
dation of President Pendleton, for a time served dur- 
ing his senior year as Pastor of the Christian 
Church in Washington, Pa. It was a distance of 
twenty miles East from the college, and he was in 
the habit of riding this distance on horseback Satur- 
day evening and returning on Sunday afternoon. 
By the roadside over which he passed, about midway 
between Bethany and Washington, was a home 
which had evidently once been beautiful, but was 
then in a state of decay. Buildings were crumbling, 
yard and garden were all overgrown with weeds, 
vineyard and orchard were neglected and gone 
down. Curious to learn the history of the place, 
the student made inquiry, and was told a young man 
had lived there who had been virtuous and respected 
by every one. He was a preacher of the Gospel, 
married a happy, loving wife, and called his home 
' ' Paradise. ' ' But the serpent entered the garden ; he 
had fallen into habits of dissipation, gone down to 
the gutter, and then to the grave; and the place was 
now known as "Paradise Lost." Along the same 
road, driving homeward, with a friend, on the after- 
noon of a cold December Lord's day, the horses 
took fright on the mountain -side, and ran, throwing 
both occupants of the vehicle to the stony roadway 
with severe injuries. Good Samaritans cared for the 

155 



156 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

young men with tender hands, and after the work of 
the surgeons was done, and they were striving to 
compose their aching limbs to rest, the old farmer, 
under whose roof they were sheltered, took down the 
Bible, and as his wife and boys gathered about the 
fireplace, opened the Sacred Volume at the twelfth 
of Bcclesiastes and read the beautiful lesson of the 
wise preacher; and then knelt and pra^^ed, and 
asked a blessing upon the 3'oung strangers, thrown 
injured into their midst, A lesson of the peace and 
of the comfort of prayer was learned never to be for- 
gotten. It seemed as if Christ were there — the 
Christ that loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus 
— and had He come. He would have found all that 
family in the ark, father, mother, brothers and 
sisters. That was "Paradise Regained." The next 
day President Pendleton came in person, with a 
surgeon and a comfortable vehicle, and these boys 
were placed on a mattress in the bed of a spring 
wagon and tenderly borne to the College, the Presi- 
dent himself directing the removal over the sixteen 
miles of rough roadway. They were taken by him 
to his own home and cared for during the weeks of 
confinement that followed, and he and his good wife 
were father and mother to the sufferers. It was a 
haven of rest to the boys. To Adam, Paradise was 
home; to the good among his descendants, home is 
Paradise. 

This incident occurred while the present Mrs. 
Pendleton presided on Pendleton Heights. Sep- 
tember 19, 1855, ^'^' Pendleton was married to his 
third wife. Miss Catherine Huntington King, daugh- 
ter of Judge Leicester King and Mrs. Julia Hunt- 



i855 157 

ington King, ofWarren, Ohio. The ceremony took 
place at Bloomfield, near Cleveland, at the home of 
the bride's sister, Julia, Mrs. Charles Brown. Mr. 
Pendleton was thirty-eight years of age, still a 
young man. For nearly five years he had been a 
widower and lived alone at his home in Bethany. 
He met his wife first at one of the college com- 
mencements which she attended in company with 
her sister Helen, afterwards Mrs. James Atkins. 
They came together for the occasion and were guests 
at the Campbell home. Her parents were from 
Connecticut, but had moved to Warren, where she 
was born and reared. Her mother's maiden name 
was Huntington, and through her she was con- 
nected with some of the oldest families in New 
England, the Kents, Dwights, Lymans, and others. 
Her father was eminent in business and in politics, 
especially as a pioneer leader in the Anti-slavery 
movement, being the nominee of the I^iberty Party 
for Governor of Ohio in 1842, and for Vice-President 
of the United States in 1847. ^is theory was a 
gradual emancipation and the compensation of the 
owners for their slaves. He was not a member of 
the church during his wife's lifetime, but he went 
from her burial to be buried with Christ in baptism. 
Mrs. Pendleton's mother had been a Presbyterian. 
The congregation of Disciples in Warren was then a 
very small, insignificant body, and was generally re- 
garded with the contempt common to those times by 
the older and more prominent churches. Shortly 
before she identified herself with the Disciples, a 
Convention had been held in the Presbyterian 
Church, and a number of the delegates had been en- 



158 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tertained at her home. Amoiio; her servants was a 
girl who belonged to the little "sect everywhere 
spoken against," and when soon afterward a similar 
meeting was held by the Disciples, she said to the 
girl, "You were very attentive and helpful during 
our Convention, and now I shall be very glad to en- 
tertain some of your delegates for you," The girl 
informed her pastor, and Walter Scott and Alexan- 
der Campbell were assigned to the King mansion. 
Mrs. King, sharing to the full extent the common 
ignorance and prejudice, expected to find, at best, 
a pair of religious cranks, but was much too intelli- 
gent herself not to recognize at once that she had 
been at least so far mistaken. When bedtime came, 
she placed a Bible on the stand beside Mr. Camp- 
bell, and asked him to conduct family worship. 
"This is my Bible ^'''' she said, fearing he would use 
his own. "Brother Scott, you please read," said 
Mr. Campbell. Without opening the book, Mr. 
Scott laid one hand upon it, and, closing his eyes, 
filling the room with the music of his noble voice, 
he repeated the nineteenth Psalm. Mrs. King was 
so impressed by this time that when they rose from 
their knees she began voluntarily to question him, 
touching his faith and teaching; they talked until 
three in the morning, and the outcome was she 
united with the church. 

Students of more than a quarter of a century have 
reason to remember with gratitude Mrs. Pendleton. 
It would be difficult to describe her. With very 
dark auburn hair, eyes perfectly black, yet soft, a 
brunette complexion, and with a brightness of mind 
and buoyancy of temperament that made her in her 



i855 159 

happier moments the embodiment of sparkling 
gaiety; with quick sympathies that made her ever as 
ready to weep with those who weep as to laugh Ynth. 
those who laugh; a cultured and beautiful woman, 
she brought to the college an influence which was 
felt in all its social, intellectual and religious life. 
She gracefully sustained her husband in dispensing 
a most delightful and abundant hospitality. There 
were always visitors; she delighted to gather young 
people about her, and little social functions were 
constantly being planned to relieve the monotony of 
student life. She had a charming sympathy always 
for a love affair, and was usually the confidante. The 
sick and the poor and the sorrowing, whether in the 
village or among the students, received her thought- 
ful and kindly consideration. If a student fell seri- 
ously ill, he was usually taken to Mr. Pendleton's 
house, if practicable, and she was unremitting in 
her personal care. She had a very remarkable fac- 
ulty of discrimination with respect to the promise of 
a student, to detect latent possibilities, and was 
quick to give encouragement and sympathy. She 
was untiring in her efforts to do good through the 
many channels open for this ministry in a college 
community. In the multitude of cares which came 
to Mr. Pendleton connected with the management 
of the institution and his work as teacher, preacher 
and editor, she was an able and devoted helper. 
Upon her good taste and judgment he greatly relied. 
With an increasing household and the care and cul- 
ture of her children, her life was one of constant 
and happy service. Their first child was born in 



i6o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

August, 1856, Clarinda Huntington, now Mrs. 
Joseph R. Lamar. 

The Pendleton home was an ideal one; the rela- 
tion of parents and children was one of closest fel- 
lowship. Mr. Pendleton always shared in their little 
joys and sorrows. In his busiest moments, if one 
came to his writing-table with a little heart break- 
ing over a broken toy, he would lay down his pen, 
take up his penknife, if need be find a string, and 
make the trouble happiness again. He was always 
handy with his hands. A man once said he believed 
Mr. Pendleton could "build a house with a jack- 
knife, if he had no better tools." Of course the 
little ones felt that he knew everything, and he in- 
spired absolute confidence. His eldest daughter, 
when as a child living at the Bethany mansion, met 
with a severe accident by being thrown out of a 
buggy. It was the day Professor Loos was married, 
and some of the family had been in the buggy to 
attend the wedding. While the horse was being 
unhitched, after their return, she climbed into the 
buggy. The horse became frightened and dashed 
down the hill. She was violently thrown to the 
ground and her face fearfully lacerated. Mr. Pen- 
dleton VNT'as immediately sent for. The child was the 
center of a frightened group in the hall, and when 
she caught sight of him in the doorway, her first 
and frantic appeal was that he would have her let 
alone. Three doctors were finally assembled, and 
she was in a paroxysm of nervous dread at their ap- 
proach, but became quiet, with a sublime faith in 
her father that he would in no case hurt her more 
than he said he would, and under the direction of 



i855 i6i 

the surgeons he performed the necessary operation. 
There was no anesthetic amelioration in those days, 
and surgery was primitive. Several gentlemen pres- 
ent contributed the gold pins from their scarfs, and 
these were passed at intervals through the opposite 
edges of the wound, and the latter held together by 
wrapping their ends in and out with silk thread. 
She was a long time getting well, and still carries 
the scar. 

One of the children illustrates his close comrade- 
ship with this story: "My earliest recollections are 
of sitting on his lap and listening, with each indi- 
vidual hair in my head erect, to the thrilling and 
bloodcurdling story of 'Dando, Uno and Nobery,' a 
story that I have never seen or heard anywhere else. 
He had it from his father, and his father from his 
father, and so on. They were three dogs, whose 
master locked them up in an outhouse and went 
hunting. He was pursued by a bear, and ran up a 
tree, and the bear began to gnaw it down, and was 
fast succeeding, when the dramatic part began. 
The man began to shout at the top of his voice, 
*Dando! Uno! Nobery! Come, my good dogs,' etc., 
a most heartrending appeal; and, miles away, the 
dogs heard an echo, faint and dim: 'Dando! Uno! 
Nobery! Come, my good dogs, save your master!' 

"They begin to howl and cry, and all that is 
given with proper elocutionary emphasis. Presently 
they begin to scratch — they stop and listen; faintly 
they hear it, 'Dando, Uno and Nobery, the ole b'ar 
will get your master!' 

"In the end — at the very last edge of the last mo- 
ment, while the tree is tottering to its fall, they suc- 
11 



i62 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ceed in scratching their way out, and, guided by 
the sound — growing dramatically louder and louder, 
they reach the spot, attack the bear, and the man is 
saved. Oh, the relief of that moment!" 

He had the reputation in his family of knowing 
everything that went on. It was useless to hide 
anything from him. He never spied on the chil- 
dren, never asked others to tell on them. He just 
knew; or, if he did not, he soon would. Once the 
boys went seining at night at a time when the law 
forbade that diversion. They brought a string of 
fish for breakfast. Mrs. Pendleton was away, and 
Miss Birdie, as Mrs. Lamar was called when a girl, 
was housekeeper. She warned them that if the fish 
appeared, her father would know how they got 
them. "How can he?" they asked. "Just tell him 
we went fishing." 

So far so good. The fish appeared, and Mr. Pen- 
dleton enjoyed them. Presently he turned to her 
with the question, "Where did you get these fish?" 
"The boys went fishing yesterday and caught 
them." "Oh, did they?" Then, turning to the 
boys, in the most casual tone, "Boys, did you catch 
them with hook and line?" An ominous silence; 
finally, "No, sir." "Oh, yes, I suppose you just 
stood on the bank and persuaded them to come out" ; 
and that was the last they ever heard of it, though 
they stood in terror of their lives for days. 

This anecdote illustrates the power he had over 
them. He never punished them, though sometimes 
— especially when he was frightened for fear of 
results — his rebukes were severe. But often he did 
not rebuke, and that very fact filled them with ap- 



i85S 163 

prehension. He knew all about their misdoings, 
and there was no telling what might happen when 
he did make up his mind to act! 

He had somewhat the same method in dealing 
with students. He knew when to keep silent, and 
the wisdom of not seeing too much, or enforcing 
rules too religiously, and when a bit of humor or 
sarcasm would serve the purpose. Some young 
men, for example, had put up the sign, 'lunatic 
Asylum," over the college door. He called atten- 
tion to it, and remarked quietly that he was glad 
they were so well acquainted with themselves. Of 
course the sign disappeared without more ado. 
Sometimes, during his absence, the students and 
faculty v/ould be in hot water all the time, but on 
his return things seemed to settle themselves with- 
out any official interference. 

Mr. Pendleton's relations to those who served in 
his household were of the same kindly nature. In 
its dealing with the question of help in the home, 
society could be amazingly advanced. That odious 
term, ''servantgalism," could only originate in a 
low, barbaric state of civilization. The mistress of 
a domestic in New York celebrated the jubilee of 
her maid, and it is thought worthy of Associated 
Press dispatches the world over. The solution of 
this problem, discussed perennially in every circle of 
twentieth century women, is easy. Let such service 
be ennobled. More than one housekeeper, like a 
creaking door, needs to be oiled. When your ser- 
vants do well, praise them; when they make mis- 
takes, don't always grumble. I,ord Chesterfield is 
taken as the model gentleman. He left by his will 



i64 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

legacies to all his menial servants equal to two 
years' wages eacli, considering them '■^as his unfor- 
tunate friends^ equal by birth and only inferior by 
fortune." 

One of Mr. Pendleton's domestics was a light-col- 
ored man named Lewis. Every old student remem- 
bers him. An artist of infinite variety, he was 
never known to arrange the napkins on the table 
twice in the same fashion. Lewis had been brought 
up and trained by Mr. Pendleton's mother. Mr. 
Pendleton had always been a great favorite with him, 
and he had often said that he was coming out to 
live with "Marse William when ole Mistress was 
gone." After Lee's surrender, Dr. Phil Pendleton 
gave him an indorsement that secured him a place 
at once in the Exchange Hotel in Richmond, but he 
stayed there only long enough to save money enough 
to go to Bethany. He reached Wheeling with only 
twenty-five cents in his pocket, walked from there, 
sixteen miles, and arrived at Pendleton Heights 
wholly unexpected, but with restful certainty that 
his cares were all ended. 

He was a most welcome addition to the household. 
His devotion to Mr. Pendleton was only equaled by 
his pride in him. He was with him sixteen years, 
and the circumstances of his leaving had a comical 
element. He was a widower, and altogether the 
favored beau — indeed the recognized aristocrat— 
among the young ladies of the limited colored popu- 
lation of the village. The time came when he could 
not see quite as well as in his youth; there was an 
occasional oversight where things had formerly been 
so immaculate. At length Mrs. Pendleton pleas- 



antly suggested spectacles. But this met with the 
passionate protest that he could not think of such a 
thing; that people v/ould imagine he was getting old 
and, m short, the young girls would have nothing 
more to do with him. The trouble with his eye- 
sight grew, though slowly, and finally a change 
seemed wise But the parting was with cordial 
good will on both sides. A Mr. Beall, of Baltimore 
wanted a body servant. It was an easier position 
for Uwis, and Mr. Pendleton secured it for him 
He continued with him for some time, but had 
bought, while at Bethany, a piece of land in the 
Cuckoo neighborhood, and later built upon it a com- 
fortable home, retiring there to end his days 

The year after Mr. Pendleton's third marriage 
came the burning of the college. Mr. Campbell was 
aroused, and came over to witness the scene 
Standing quietly, he watched the destruction of the 
building into which he had put so much of labor 
and so many hopes. As Mr. Pendleton was in the 
thick of the effort to save wherever rescue might be 
possible, and students were helping him with a will 
m heroic attempt to get some of the philosophical 
apparatus through the windows of his lecture room 
and only succeeded in breaking it, he said, pleas- 
antly, Never mind, gentlemen, it is too late; we 
may as well allow it to burn up in good order " 

Ivater, when the December night was far'spent, 
the crowds about the fire had gone home, and the 
rest of the household retired to rest, as he stood 
alone at his front window watching the fitful light 
and smoke from the ruins, his wife came near and 
laid her hand on his shoulder. -What will you do 



i66 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

now that the building is gone?" she asked. Turn- 
ing his face to her with the light of cheerful cour- 
age, that all who ever saw him in hard places must 
remember, he answered calmly, "With God's help, 
build a better one." 

From that moment he bent all his splendid powers 
to this achievement. With Mr. Campbell he made 
the tour of Kentucky and the East. "We gener- 
ally in all places preached twice or thrice, Mr. Pen- 
dleton and myself in turn," writes Mr. Campbell. 
"Mr. Pendleton enjoys good health, and saves me 
much labor in speaking. He preaches for the Col- 
lege, and I for the Church." 



CHAPTER XV 

II.IAS MALORUM 

With Mr, Pendleton 1857 was a very busy year. 
His labors on the Harbinger were unusually abund- 
ant. He contributed monthly his short sermons on 
"Second Peter." He wrote on "God's Part in the 
Work of Human Redemption," and had time, not 
only to urge the claims of Bethany College, but to 
speak a good word for Bacon College, Ky., for the 
Christian University at Canton, Mo., and for John 
B. Cary's work at Hampton, Va. His articles on 
missions are notable. "How stands the cause of 
missions among us?" is a question he deals with 
most vigorously. The brethren were talking. Dum 
Roma deliberate Sagunturn peril. Benjamin Frank- 
lin is Corresponding Secretary. Mr. Pendleton's 
appeal to the churches to rally to his support is a 
trumpet-blast: "Brethren, do we feel our mission? 
How many of us realize that there is a necessity laid 
upon us to preach the Gospel? There can be no 
true Christianity without the missionary spirit. We 
will defend this thesis against any odds and before 
any tribunal that acknowledges the Divine author- 
ity of the New Testament: there can be no true 
Christianity without the missionary spirit. You may 
talk about expediency, and higgle about North and 
South co-operating, and stumble at the proper man 
for the missionary, and theorize about prerogatives 
of something which you vaguely call the church — 

167 



i68 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

all this you may do till doom's day — but if these 
miserable subterfuges only cover up your parsimony 
and furnish a cloak for your godless indifference 
about the salvation of the lost, you are not of the 
spirit of Christ at all, and we have no controversy 
with you. We don't expect your co-operation. It is 
to preach the Gospel, not politics nor humanity sim- 
ply, but the salvation of the souls of men, to which 
Christ calls us. Alas for those who hamper the 
Gospel in the little hand-baskets with which they 
go about, hawking their narrow conceits about the 
rights of men!" 

He meets the objections of those who have consci- 
entious scruples about a distinct missionary organi- 
zation separate from the church, and begs these 
brethren to ask themselves, their own heads and 
hearts, "Is our missionary society distinct from the 
church?" "Beware," he says, "of ambiguous 
terms. The church, in the wide sense of the New 
Testament, has no organization presented to us in 
the Scriptures." He names Fanning and Oliphant 
"our geographical extremes," asks that "the heart 
may have a fair chance with the head, and the love 
of souls a little space to wrestle with the stony theo- 
ries on which the Gospel must ever wither without 
fruit," and cries, "Pocket the controversy, brethren, 
and pray for the cause of missions instead. Give us 
the aid of your wisdom, not the discouragement of 
your opposition. Cheer us with the hope of a cor- 
dial co-operation in this noble cause, even though it 
be under a protest against the wisdom of the plan." 

The war of religious newspapers was already on. 
The "geographical extremes" were the Gospel 



ILIAS MALORUM 169 

Banner of Canada West, and the Gospel Advocate of 
Tennessee. Mr. Pendleton appeals for unity and 
co-operation, and urges the claims of the two mis- 
sions, Jerusalem and Jamaica. "We are not tena- 
cious about the plan," he declares, "provided that 
we can feel sure that somehow the work will be 
done. We will modify the technicalities and forms, 
change or abolish them altogether, if you will show 
us a better way, but the Gospel must be sent 
and preached to all possible people and lands, for 
this necessity is laid upon the lyord's people, and 
woe unto them if they do not do it!" 

Thus as far back as '57 the discussion of plans 
had begun. Men were agitating the question of the 
Scripturalness of an organization for missionary 
operation. The first mutterings of what has proven 
an Iliad of woes could be heard in the land. 

In August of this year, Mr. Pendleton makes 
some interesting replies in the Harbinger to a host 
of knotty queries that are thrown at him, some of 
which have been answered, right or wrong, many a 
time before, and some of which never have been, 
and perhaps never can be, answered. A brother 
wants to know if it is a violation of First Timothy, 
chapter ii., and First Peter iii., for Christians to 
wear gold. The editor in reply quotes First Peter 
iii:4, and says if this be the daily aim and effort of 
Christian women, he has little fear they will dress 
to their hurt; but if these be wanting, though the 
garb be humble as a beggar's, they are of no worth 
in the sight of the Judge. Vanity may strut in rags 
and humility be arrayed in purple and fine linen. 
In this connection he also quotes that rich utterance 



I70 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

of Seneca: "Great is lie who enjoys his earthen- 
ware as if it were plate, and not less great is the 
man to whom all his plate is no more than earthen- 
ware." The inquisitive brother also desires to 
know, "Have sisters a right to vote in the selection 
of church officers?" "Yes," says Mr. Pendleton, 
"sisters have just as much right to say yes or no in 
the selection of the men who are to rule over them 
in the intimate spiritual relations of the Christian 
Church, as they have in selecting their husbands. 
The general rule is Galatians iii:28." 

. Then comes that interrogatory which has added 
another to our Iliad of miseries, and which here for 
the second time in the whole history of the Harbin- 
ger is touched upon: "Is it in accordance with the 
Holy Scriptures and Christian harmony for a Chris- 
tian church to have an organ to assist in church 
music?" Mr. Pendleton replies wisely: "The ques- 
tion concerning the use of instrumental music in the 
public worship of the Christian Church is not one to 
be settled by Scriptural authority. It is a question 
to be determined by general principles and the light 
of experience. If it could be clearly shown that an 
organ tends to promote the spirit of devotion and 
heighten the ardor of praise and worship in the con- 
gregation, as a whole, then it would follow that 
organs should be employed. If, on the other hand, 
they silence the melody of the heart in the greater 
number, or destroy or sensualize the spiritual praise 
of the lyord's people, then away with them! Now 
either of these results may follow the use of an organ 
in the conduct of the church music, according to the 
musical taste and cultivation of the congregation, 



ILIAS MALORUM 171 

and the choice might be made accordingly." He 
thinks all things should be done in love and with a 
gentle respect to the feelings, tastes and even preju- 
dices of one another, and this would be sweeter 
praise to Him who sits amidst the symphonies of 
angels and seraphim than the swelling harmonies of 
the best trained organs and choirs. 

The eighth anniversary of the American Bible 
Union is held this year in New York, and Mr. Pen- 
dleton attends its sessions and delivers the annual 
address. He speaks of it as a great convocation of 
the Lord's people. "We have never witnessed," he 
says, "so large an assembly of representative men 
from all sections of our widespread country in whose 
proceedings there was so little display of personal 
ambition and selfish aim, and so much unity of 
spirit and singleness of purpose and harmony of sen- 
timent as prevailed in this convention and distin- 
guished its proceedings, protracted as they were 
through two full days of most interesting and ani- 
mated sessions. The brotherly love that united the 
hearts of this large assemblage of Christians was 
very beautiful. It was enough to repay one for the 
trouble and expense of attending simply to enjoy the 
pleasure of so sweet and so pure a reunion." He 
contrasts the scenes of Wall Street where, amid the 
drowning sounds of onrushing commerce, the Moloch 
money was dragging to the sacrifice many a sad and 
reluctant human victim, and turning to ashes the 
earthly hopes of rich and poor, proud and humble, 
alike, v/ith the swelling strains of peaceful joy and 
heavenly hope which fill the hearts and tune the 
voices of the throngs of grateful, happy people vv^ho 



172 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

are passing in and out of tlie stately old temple on 
Broom Street, praising God and taking sweet coun- 
sel together concerning his Word. He gives a full 
account of the work of the Union, and his own re- 
port as chairman of the committee on English Scrip- 
tures, and speaks of the anniversary meetings 
where these voices of counsel, encouragement and 
praise are heard above the din of commerce as the 
Oratorio of the Faithful Translation of God's Blessed 
Word. His splendid address delivered at this meet- 
ing is well worthy of careful reading by all lovers 
of the Bible. 

Mr, Pendleton also attended the State Missionary 
Convention of Pennsylvania which met in Allegheny 
in September, and is mentioned as one of those who 
"contributed much to the interest and edification of 
the brethren by their lucid and spirit-stirring ad- 
dresses." 

The college during this period was growing in 
favor and in the number and character of its stu- 
dents. Prof. A. S. Ross resigned the Chair of Lan- 
guages, and James S. Fall, of Kentucky, was chosen 
to succeed him. Mrs. Emily Tubman, of Georgia, 
subscribed $16,000 to the endowment of the Tub- 
man Chair, and Prof. Joseph Desha Pickett was ap- 
pointed to fill it. The faculty advanced greatly the 
standard of scholarship necessary to the B. A. de- 
gree. Mr. Pendleton tells us of the list of graduates 
in July, twenty-six in number, the average age is 
twenty-two years, showing the students of Bethany 
were not boys, but young men capable of receiving 
and required to attain a high degree of scholarship. 
L. A. Cutler, LB. Grubbs and E. B. Challener were 



ILIAS MALORUM 173 

among those receiving degrees. The seventeenth 
session opened with every indication of prosperity. 
"We have never had a finer opening," says Mr. 
Pendleton; *'the number of students is unusually 
large, and from all sections of our American Union. 
The difficulty of access has been overcome, and stu- 
dents may come by rail to I^a Grange, within seven 
miles of the college. No institution known to us 
affords such and so ample facilities and aids for a 
thorough and first-class education upon terms so 
moderate. We have all the fullness and thorough- 
ness in our literary and scientific course of the old- 
est and most renowned universities of our country, 
with charges scarcely differing from those of acade- 
mies. Our endowment scheme is still going on, 
and the I^ord is opening the hearts of his people to 
help us still farther in this work." 

In the midst of all this prosperity, December loth, 
1857, comes dire disaster — the college is burned to 
the ground. About two o'clock in the morning the 
building was discovered to be on fire. A ruddy 
light flashing into the sleeping apartments of some 
of the students at the steward's inn aroused them. 
So rapid was the progress of the flames that nothing 
could be saved. Assembled students, villagers and 
faculty stood by helplessly while the halls, the libra- 
ries of the institution, and of the three literary soci- 
eties, together with all the chemical and philosoph- 
ical apparatus, valuable manuscripts and other things 
of interest, were destroyed. It was supposed to be 
the work of an incendiary. There was no insurance 
on the property. Thus, in a few hours, the work of 
years and accumulations of hard labor and sacrifice 



174 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

on the part of many devoted men and women were 
reduced to a heap of senseless ashes. It was indeed 
a calamity. To this young, aspiring and rapidly 
growing institution it seemed well-nigh irreparable. 
Notwithstanding the appalling nature of the misfor- 
tune, however, the faculty made immediate arrange- 
ments to prosecute the regular business of the col- 
lege, and fit up rooms for the different classes, so 
that the recitations were interrupted /or only one 
day. Four-fifths of the students remained. The 
Trustees met at once, determined that Bethany Col- 
lege should be immediately rebuilt, and took the fol- 
lowing action: "Ordered, that the President and 
Prof. Pendleton be and are hereby appointed to 
solicit in person funds for the re-erection of the col- 
lege, and for the purchase of library, apparatus, etc., 
and that they are earnestly solicited to spare no 
effort and lose no time in the effort to procure the 
requisite funds upon the best practicable terms as to 
early payment, and not less in amount than $50,' 
000." 

Prof. Pendleton was also appointed, with Presi- 
dent Campbell and Dr. Richardson, to issue an ad- 
dress to the friends of Bethany College and to the 
friends of education, soliciting their immediate aid to 
re-erect upon a suitable scale the college building, 
and was selected as one of a committee to prepare 
plans and specifications for the new structure. 
Prompt action was also taken by the Society of the 
Alumni. Churches in different sections, receiving 
news of this great loss by telegraph, in many cases 
at once took subscriptions for the college, one con- 
gregation in Ohio, which learned on Saturday of the 



ILIAS MALORUM 175 

disaster, pledging the next day $500. Said Mr. 
Campbell, now an aged and venerable man, "Breth- 
ren, once more mUvSt I plead the claims of Bethany 
College, a vital part of the instrumentalities neces- 
sary for carrying on our great and glorious work of 
religious reformation. A heavy blow has fallen 
upon us: our college building is in ruins, our library 
and apparatus are destroyed. We come to you for 
help." 

President Campbell and Vice-President Pendleton 
entered the field at once. Twelve days after the 
disaster they are in Washington City by invitation 
of Judge J. S. Black, of Pennsylvania, then Attor- 
ney-General of the United States. Mr. Campbell 
preached in the First Baptist Church, and addressed 
a large audience, the President, several members of 
the cabinet and many distinguished members of 
Congress being among his hearers. Mr. Pendleton's 
description of an interview between Mr. Campbell 
and President Buchanan is interesting: "On Tues- 
day evening we had the pleasure of accompanying 
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell and their daughters, Vir- 
ginia and Decima, to the White House. Judge 
Black and his pious and devoted Christian lady, 
with their accomplished daughter, gave us a wel- 
come introduction, and it was no ordinary pleasure 
to me, who had never seen Mr. Buchanan before, to 
sit and listen to the free and animated conversation 
which at once grew up between these venerable 
patriarchs — the one in the stormy and uncertain 
strifes of political life, where honors fall by accident 
and merit often sinks neglected to the grave; the 
other in the certain warfare of the Cross, in which 



176 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

all true soldiers shall surely conquer and tlie hum- 
blest deed of service meet an eternal reward. 

"The most noticeable peculiarity in Mr. Buch- 
anan's personal appearance is in a quick, jerking 
sort of retraction that he gives to one of his shoul- 
ders when he first salutes one, accompanied by a 
correspondent adjustment of his head and eyes as 
though he might be preparing to level a musket at 
you. This is said to be owing to an unequal con- 
vexity in the lenses of his eyes, one of which is 
short-sighted, and the other natural, or long-sighted. 
It is necessary, therefore, to adjust them at different 
distances from their object. A professor of the 
science of optics, like myself, may, I presume, be 
allowed to say, without the charge of irreverence, 
that this is truly a scientific curiosity. The Presi- 
dent's friends, however, see in it only an outward 
index of the character of his mind which, they say, 
is both microscopic and telescopic; that is, I sup- 
pose, he examines with minute care all the details 
of his subject by close and individual inspection of 
each fact, and careful regard to every principle, and 
then placing himself at a commanding distance, 
takes a general and comprehensive survey of the 
whole. This is certainly high praise, for it gives 
Mr. Buchanan that rare combination of powers 
which, when possessed in high degree, always place 
the stamp of greatness upon a man. We find many 
gifted with the power of analysis, the microscopic 
power of the mind, and not infrequently high powers 
of generalization, the telescopic power — but it is 
among the rarest products of nature that these are 
combined in high degree in the same person, and 



ILIAS MALORUM 177 

never does she send us sucli a gift but for rare and 
signal service to humanity." 

He describes the manner of the President as ex- 
ceedingly cordial, and concludes that he is sincerely 
laboring in his high and responsible position for the 
greatest good of the greatest number by rigid faith- 
fulness to the Constitution, and an enlarged and 
conservative policy on the stormy question of sec- 
tional difference. He is impressed with the elegant 
American ease and simplicity with which Miss L^ane, 
the President's niece, presides at the White House. 
"She seems to be so cheerful, so full of American 
welcome, so democratic in her grace, and so aristo- 
cratic in her good manners, that one can readily im- 
agine himself on a visit to the hall of his ancestors, 
and greeted by a noble daughter of the line as a re- 
spected kinsman on a welcome pilgrimage to the 
ancestral home." He meets here "Brother Carpen- 
ter and lady. Brother Johnson and lady," and D. S. 
Burnet, who had been for some days laboring in the 
city as usual in behalf of the Lord's people, "cher- 
ishing no small hope that he could succeed in effect- 
ing a union between our brethren of Washington 
City and the members of Dr. Teasdale's Baptist con- 
gregation." He visits the Smithsonian Institution, 
the National greenhouse, and the splendid halls of 
the National Capitol. He tells of an interview with 
Prof. Henry, who "received Mr. Campbell with 
great respect, and entered at once into a very suc- 
cinct but satisfactory recital of the objects and de- 
signs of the institution, closing, by way of illustra- 
tion, with a brief survey of his map of meteorolog- 
ical stations, and a clear and very interesting sketch 
12 



178 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

of the 'Storm Theory,' which he hopes fully to 
make out and to apply to the explanation of the 
weather changes that take place apparently so capri- 
ciously in our country." 

He is specially taken up with the aquarium. 
From the greenhouse he sends to his wife, to whom 
this letter is written, a beautiful bud which he 
plucked with his own fingers, in memoriara, and a 
leaf of the cinnamon tree, "for whose exquisite fra- 
grance you must thank Brother Burnet." The Cap- 
itol building greatly impresses him. For beauty of 
proportion, grandeur of outline and magnificent di- 
mensions, he thinks the world affords no parallel, 
but expresses a doubt whether a refined taste will 
not ultimately decide the decorations of the hall of 
the House of Representatives too gaudy, too elabo- 
rate in ornament, and too glittering with tinsel and 
gilt for the country and people whom they represent. 

On this tour Mr. Pendleton spends Christmas in 
Baltimore with G. W. Morling. Christmas eve he 
met with the Disciples in their prayer-meeting. 
G. W. Elley has just closed his year's service as 
their minister. Romanism he thinks a terrible 
power in Baltimore, and speaks of the floral decora- 
tions, incense, music and mummery displayed at the 
Cathedral. He visited here the manufacturers of 
philosophical instruments, and found a very superior 
set of apparatus, purchased by a wealthy amateur 
for his own private use, and offered by his executors 
for sale, which he secured for Bethany College. On 
the Lord's day he preached for the brethren, and 
then went on to Philadelphia. Here he is with Dr. 
Barclay and William Rouzee, and on the eve of the 



ILIAS MALORUM 179 

new year he leaves for New York, and is for several 
days the guest of Br. E. Parmley in Bond Street. 

In New York Mr. Pendleton makes his first new 
year's call. He visits the Museum of Art, and de- 
scribes Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair and Denizens of 
the Highlands; he thinks of her in the department 
of the Fine Arts as Shakespeare among the drama- 
tists. He attends the Sunday-school anniversary of 
the church on Seventeenth Street, and speaks to the 
children. Special note he makes during his stay in 
the city of any such edifices as might suggest any- 
thing useful towards the model of a new college 
building for Bethany. The claims of the college 
are urged during this visit to the Eastern cities, and 
substantial aid is secured for the institution. 

In July the corner-stone of the new building is 
laid, Mr. Campbell delivering the address, beginning 
with the words, "Circles have their centers, squares 
their rectangles, and all terrestrial edifices their cor- 
ner-stone." He announces that through the liber- 
ality of the people "we have now going up a beau- 
tiful building which will be ready for use next ses- 
sion. This building, however, is designed for soci- 
ety halls and library, and will only be used for col- 
lege purposes until we can complete our main college 
edifice. We have spared no pains to project every- 
thing upon the most improved models of architec- 
tural taste and convenience. The Gothic has been 
adopted as the style most fitly expressive of the in- 
spiring nature of the Christian's aims and hopes. 
During a few months of labor given last winter to 
the task of raising means over #30,000 were prom- 
ised." July 2d the seventeenth commencement was 



i8o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

held in Bethany Church. There are twenty-four 
graduates, and such names appear in the list as 
W. T. Moore, Jephtha Hobbs, J. C. Miller, H. S. 
Karl and J. Z. Taylor. 

Mr. Pendleton attends the fall anniversary of the 
A. C. M. S. in Cincinnati, Ohio, and delivers one of 
the addresses. He gives a most interesting account 
of the personnel and deliberations of the convention. 
John Smith, Walter Scott, John Rodgers, James 
Henshall, James Challen, John Longley, Harrison 
Jones, Elijah Goodwin, Pettigrew, Fall, Arnold, 
Dearborn, Procter, Myers, Munnell, Pinkerton and 
Brooks were some of the men present. He is domi- 
ciled with the Mayor, R. M. Bishop. "Given to 
hospitality," he says, "seems written over No. 95, 
corner of College and Seventh. I find our brother a 
Bishop by name, almost a bishop of the church, and 
the President Bishop of the city over whose council 
he presides with efficiency and respect — a man 
whose integrity and Napoleon energy and Christian 
devotion make him the people's choice as a public 
servant — a prince among merchants, as a man of 
business and a pillar in the church, as a benevolent 
and consistent Christian." 

Isaac Errett, Corresponding Secretary, reports at 
this meeting $7,000 in cash collections, and as much 
more pledged, the Jerusalem Mission fully provided 
for, the Jamaica Mission liberally sustained, and 
several home missions projected and partly estab- 
lished. "Kansas Territory" was specially recom- 
mended to the attention of the churches as a field of 
great promise. 



CHAPTER XVI 

ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 

The year 1859 saw the new college building rise 
out of the ashes of its predecessor. Walter & Wil- 
son, of Cincinnati, were the architects employed, 
but the plans and the elevation were all carried out 
under Mr. Pendleton's supervision, and, practically, 
the whole was the creation of his own mind. He 
almost literally watched every brick go into it, much 
of the work being done in the summer vacation. 
He chose the style, collegiate Gothic, and risked 
the long, low building — the length to give the cor- 
ridor — because he knew that both would be effective 
on the brow of the college hill. The corridor he in- 
tended for just what it has become — a place of two- 
fold advantage — where the brain may be rested, ani- 
mated by a breath of fresh air as the student passes 
from one recitation to another, and where the whole 
student body might congregate in hours of recrea- 
tion to walk and talk and sing. No doubt for the 
old student its length is trod by more and sweeter 
memories than any other place connected with his 
Bethany life. The tramp and the voices as the boys 
pour out of the class rooms he can hear. The cheers 
and hilarity and boisterous good humor of the happy 
crowd when the bell rang at the closing hour of 
morning and the announcement of dinner still 
sound in his ears. The moonlight promenade and 
the sweet college songs they loved to sing he can 

181 



1 82 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

vividly recall. The animated scenes on the even- 
ings of special "performances," or during the fes- 
tivities of commencement week, continue to pass be- 
fore him, and even the memory of tenderer things 
in the shadow of the pillars, or in the fitful moon- 
light between them, may yet delightfully come be- 
fore his mental vision. 

Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Pendleton 
had a practical knowledge of the architect's calling. 
His eye for straight lines is recalled to-day by men 
who as boys worked under him. One of these, 
when quite a boy, was helping his father, Mr. James 
Wells, in the building of an addition to the Pendle- 
ton house. The Professor, quickl)'- observing an un- 
usual natural aptitude which showed itself even in 
the simple work that he was doing, said, "You 
ought to go to college and fit j^ourself for something 
better than you are doing. You have the talent." 
"I wish you would make father think so," was the 
quick answer. Mr. Pendleton soon persuaded Mr. 
Wells to give Edgar this chance. The boy spent a 
short time in college studying chiefly mathematics; 
later he became the leading architect in Wheeling, 
and at his death, some ten years ago, the press 
notices of his life said that he had given Wheeling, 
which he found a severely ugly manufacturing town, 
the first of its pretty homes. Mr. Pendleton could 
draw the working plans of a building and superin- 
tend the builders in all their departments. He drew 
the plans for bis own home, both for the original 
structure and when it was remodeled to its present 
condition. Old citizens, craftsmen of the village 
and farmers of the neighborhood, in loving reminis- 



ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 183 

cence, deliglit to tell how he understood their busi- 
ness, and none are so prompt to be disgusted with 
the man of books v/ho has read a little about their 
calling and assumes to tell them how they ought to 
pursue it. The beautiful little church at Eustis, 
Florida, was his last piece of work. The contractor, 
Mr. Ross, a citizen of the town, grew to love him 
with tenderest affection, and after the completion of 
the structure, through Mr. Pendleton's influence 
united with the church. 

A good description of the new college building 
appears in the Cincinnati Gazette in May of this 
year: "One of the most imposing college buildings 
in the United States is in progress of erection for the 
use of Bethany College, Brooke County, Va. The 
architects, Messrs. Walter & Wilson, of this city, 
have shown us drawings of the buildings in detail, 
and although it is not to be extravagantly expensive, 
yet it will be a magnificent edifice. The exterior 
design is calculated to make it show to the best ad- 
vantage, and the interior arrangement embraces 
some new and desirable features. The structure, 
when finished, will present a continuous front of 420 
feet; 193 feet of the center of the building will be 
two stories high, and in the rear of the central or 
main entrance there will be a tower 22 feet square 
and 96 feet high, surmounted by a spire I23 feet 
from the ground. At the extreme right of the 
building is a wing occupying about sixty feet of the 
front, extending back 80 feet, and two stories high. 
This portion of the building is already up, and each 
story is divided into two society halls and two libra- 
ries. The second story is finished with an open 



i84 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

timbered roof and frescoed. At the left end of the 
structure is to be the chapel, measuring 43 feet on 
the front and extending back 112 feet. In the rear 
of the first story of the main building there will be 
an open corridor 14 feet wide, and extending 308 
feet from the chapel to the right wing. This hall 
is to be 14 feet high in the clear, supported by but- 
tresses and flagged with stone. There are to be five 
front entrances: the central one opens into a hall 19 
feet wide and extending through across the long cor- 
ridor to the main staircase. On either side of this 
hall is a room 18 by 26 feet; one is the reception 
room, and the other the President's room, which is 
provided with a small adjoining room, containing a 
fire-proof safe or vault. On either side of the main 
staircase is a students' room, each 18 by 20 feet. 
The balance of the first story is divided into two 
lecture rooms, each 22 by 38 feet, two class rooms, 
each 27 by 30 feet, professors' rooms, apparatus 
rooms, etc. The second story is divided into two 
class rooms, each 26 by 30 feet, a library room, 41 
by 58 feet, a museum, 25 by 41 feet, curator's room, 
25 by 41 feet, and four professors' and tutors' rooms. 
In the basement is a large laboratory, the janitor's 
residence, fuel rooms, etc. The style of the art is 
collegiate Gothic, and the irregular outline, with 
the tower and finials, gives a very pleasing effect. 
The walls are to be of brick, and roofs covered with 
the best description of Pennsylvania slate. Doors 
and window-sills, lintels and hoods, steps, flagging, 
cornices, wall and tower coping, roof crotchets, 
finials, gargoyle blocks, and all outside molded and 
ornamental work are to be of freestone. The in- 



ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 185 

terior woodwork is to be of white pine, and all the 
carpenter work, as well as every other department, 
is to be done in the best manner." 

Mr. Pendleton says at the close of the college ses- 
sion: *'We congratulate the friends of the college 
on the rapid progress we are making in our new edi- 
fice. More than 150 feet front of this beautiful and 
majestic pile will be ready for our next session. 
Nearly one hundred workmen are steadily plying 
the chisel, the trowel and the plane, and pinnacle, 
tower and spire are rising rapidly toward the 
heavens. It will be a source of pleasure in after 
years to every good man to feel that he has contrib- 
uted something to this noble monument of Christian 
gratitude and benevolence. So far the enterprise 
has been generously aided by a very large class of 
brethren. We shall regret if any portion of our 
brotherhood suffers the work to go on to its comple- 
tion without participating in the honor of its erec- 
tion. We shall need the co-operation of the liberal 
and good; 176 feet front we have yet to provide for. 
Let the new buildings of Bethany College rise as a 
monument to the zeal, faithfulness and public-spir- 
ited Christian generosity and benevolence of the 
three hundred thousand Christians which it repre- 
sents, and her libraries, apparatus, museums and 
general endowment bespeak the large and compre- 
hensive interest in true learning which character- 
izes us as a people! When we look at the rapidly 
expanding proportions of the new building as it 
rises daily before our eyes, and think of the very 
small period of time since the same site was covered 
with a shapeless pile of gloomy ruins, the remains of 



1 86 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the old college, we feel that it is tlie doing of a wise 
and gracious Providence, and should therefore excite 
the warmest gratitude and liveliest hopes of his peo- 
ple. To his honor and glory, in the good of his 
cause and church, be it ever dedicated, and the 
labors of the good and generous who have co-oper- 
ated in its completion will be more than requited. 
To God and his saints we commend the care and 
keeping of Bethany College now, henceforth and 
forever!" 

In a short talk to the students one Monday morn- 
ing of the summer that he died, Mr. Pendleton said, 
referring to the college building, that it had been 
intended to be a monument to Alexander Campbell, 
not only in its usefulness, but in its beauty. It was, 
when built, no doubt the most beautiful college 
building in the country. Indeed, it was often said 
by visitors to be the only college edifice in the land 
with any claim to architectural beauty. When Pro- 
fessor A. E. Dolbear, a man who had traveled much 
and was well versed in such matters, came to be 
Professor of Natural Sciences at the college, and was 
delivering his inaugural address after the morning 
chapel service, he held a catalogue in his hand, 
having opened it at the picture of the buildings, and, 
holding the face to the audience said, "There is not 
such a college building as that in the United 
States!" 

"To God and his saints we commend the care and 
keeping of Bethany College now, henceforth and 
forever!" How these words should ring in our ears 
to-day! How sacred is the heritage of the Disciples 
of Christ in this honored institution of learning! 



ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 187 

How immeasurable the debt of the advocates of this 
nineteenth century movement for the restoration of 
primitive Christianity and the union of God's peo- 
ple to Bethany College! How precious the tradi- 
tions and memories, and how inspiring the history 
and genius of this quiet spot among the everlasting 
hills! How the noble names of Campbell and Pen- 
dleton should be forever memorialized in the liberal, 
enlarged and permanent endowment of this ancient 
school of the prophets! 

The closing scenes of the eighteenth session of 
Bethany College were perhaps the most interesting 
and encouraging the institution had ever witnessed. 
The exercises of the occasion were held in the 
Church, and throughout were attended by large and 
attentive audiences. The societies vied with each 
other in the variety and excellence of their "per- 
formances," marshaling their most gifted and culti- 
vated members, and giving such exhibitions of 
scholarship and eloquence as were most creditable 
to the institution and satisfactory to the public. A 
more devoted band of students never attended the 
school. Alma mater to them meant no unmeaning 
expression of formal and unfelt relationship, but a 
real title of an honored literary and scientific nursing 
mother, whose fostering care they were ready to re- 
quite with generous gratitude, and whose misfor- 
tunes, with a liberality and munificence worthy of 
themselves and of her, they were anxious and eager 
promptly to repair. They nobly co-operated with 
trustees and faculty in 'replacing her losses and re- 
building on a larger and broader scale the founda- 
tions of her usefulness and fame. For elegance and 



i88 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

good taste in furniture, and completeness and fitness 
in all appointments, the society halls were not 
equaled probably by any others in the Union, and 
this was the work of the students. Over two thou- 
sand volumes of the choicest works of home and 
European authorship were purchased as the nuclei 
of their library. The graduating class was the 
largest in the history of the institution. Thirty-two 
received the Bachelor's Degree, among them M. B. 
McKeever, Robert Moffett, B. H. Smith and Hiram 
Warriner. Addresses were delivered in Greek, Latin, 
Hebrew and Spanish, as well as the English tongue. 
Professors Milligan and Richardson retired from the 
faculty. To fill vacancies in the Board of Trustees, 
T. W. Caskey, R. M. Bishop, James W. Goss, C. W. 
Russell, J. S. Lamar and Albert Allen were selected. 
Prof. J. D. Pickett was elected to the chair of 
Rhetoric and English, Prof. Charles J. Kemper to 
the chair of Mathematics and Astronomy, Dr. Hiram 
Christopher to the chair of Natural History and 
Physiology, and Dr. P. W. Mosblech to the depart- 
ment of Modern and Oriental Languages. The fac- 
ulty was full and complete, composed of seven pro- 
fessors, besides an adjunct corps of assistant tutors 
in the various schools requiring extra labor. 

Mr. Pendleton attended a number of conventions 
this year. He accompanied Mr. Campbell in his 
tour through Kentucky in November, '58, and 
writes most entertainingly in the Harbinger of '59 of 
their experiences. They entered the State at Cov- 
ington, then a city of 25,000, with its first suspen- 
sion bridge to the Queen City in process of erection. 
They visited Petersburg, and Burlington, where 



ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 189 

Thomas Campbell had taught school many years be- 
fore, and then by rail went to Kvansville, Indiana, 
and by boat to Henderson. From this point they 
had to go by private conveyance to Hopkinsville, 
"distance seventy-five miles by line, but about sixty 
hours by time." "It is a time-honored adage, 
^Speak nothing but good of the dead,' " writes Mr. 
Pendleton, "and in the spirit of it I forbear to say a 
word of this road, this interval of peril between 
Henderson on the Ohio River, and Hopkinsville in 
the center of southwestern Kentucky. We had a 
team that the spirit of Jehu could not have quick- 
ened; a carriage open to 'a' the airts the wind can 
blaw,' and a driver that ' seemed to have been 
brought up on the proverb that a merciful man is 
merciful to his beast, and we made only twenty-two 
miles the first day." They finally reached their 
destination in good time for the convention. He 
speaks of meeting many Bethany students here and 
some of the old Virginia friends and neighbors of 
other days. "It made me feel quite a boy again, 
for it threw me back into the relations of thirty 
years ago. I always feel so when I stand up to 
speak in the church of my boyhood's fathers. The 
sense of their presence and of all around me threw 
me back into the days of pupilage, and I cannot di- 
vest myself of the impression that I am assuming to 
be a teacher when I ought to stand as a learner. ' ' 
The feast of reason and flow of soul, the goodly fel- 
lowship and good work of the convention are de- 
tailed with interest. 

The State meeting in Missouri in September was 
also attended by him. Jacob Creath presided over 



I90 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

this convention, and among those who participated 
in its deliberations were John Smith, D. S. Burnet, 
J. W. McGarvey, Alexander Procter, T. M. Allen, 
L. B. Wilkes and J. K. Rogers. The conventions 
of these days seem to have been largely mass 
meetings in which preaching and general discussion 
consumed the larger part of the time. There were 
reports of treasurer and sundry standing committees, 
and then the brethren considered "the propriety of 
employing one or more State Evangelists, the rec- 
ommendation of some weekly religious newspaper 
for general circulation, and the educational interests 
of the brotherhood." The treasurer at this meeting, 
A. Procter, reported receipts for the year $318.75. 
There seemed to be no general plan of co-operation. 
One of the first actions taken was the appointment 
of a committee on publication, with instructions to 
print 3,000 copies of the minutes of the convention. 
The usual resolution was passed announcing the 
presence of Brother W. K. Pendleton, and inviting 
him to participate in the exercises of the meeting. 
A report on female orphan school was presented, 
appointing trustees for such an institution. Pledges 
were taken for general work amounting to $234, 
and an appeal made for money to educate two young 
men for the ministry. The report on religious 
newspaper recommended The American Christian 
Review, published by Benjamin Franklin. The 
brother who would be one of a hundred to raise $50,- 
000 for a benevolent fund came to the front. Reso- 
lutions were passed indorsing Bethany College and 
expressing sympathy with its venerable President 
and its faculty in the calamity which had befallen 



ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 191 

the institution, and urging tlie brotherhood through- 
out the State to aid in the re-erection of the college 
edifice. In fact, many resolutions were offered, and 
all are reported as "carried." There seems to have 
been little business done, but these brethren were, 
after all, laying the foundations for the noble edifice 
whose imposing proportions may now be seen far 
and wide, and which will be not the least notable of 
the wonders of the great International Exposition in 
honor of the Louisiana Purchase. 

As usual Mr. Pendleton is present at the annual 
meeting of the A. C. M. S. in October. Mr. Camp- 
bell is absent, and William P. Stratton presides. 
W. K. Pendleton, D. S. Burnet and James Challen 
are appointed a committee on business, and they 
report, appointing Burnet to preach the first even- 
ing, and Procter and Lard the second evening, and 
fixing the business hours of the convention. Isaac 
Errett makes his annual statement as corresponding 
secretary, showing receipts for the year $8,500. He 
has received pledges in two years of $22,000. The 
Jerusalem and Jamaica Missions, and home work in 
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in Maine and 
Michigan, are the matters discussed in the report, 
and the great and growing West, neglected East, 
and China, Japan and Africa, receive the usual share 
of attention. The salary of the corresponding secre- 
tary in these primitive times was $1,200; Jerusalem 
received $2,000, and Jamaica $1,200, and $1,185 
went for the home field. Mr. Pendleton was made 
chairman of the committee on "Established Mis- 
sions" in this convention, and also continued as one 
of the Board of Managers. In his report for the 



192 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

committee he dwells upon the importance of the 
work of Dr. Barclay, and says: "As the eye of the 
Hebrew mother lingered about the spot where the 
infant Moses lay amidst the perils of the Nile, so 
with the nurturing fondness of a true mother's heart 
does the Church of Christ look to this tender child 
of hope, as the agent under God in whom Israel 
shall yet find deliverance, and the walls of Zion once 
more arise in the beauty of holiness." He thinks 
the work of Mr. Beardsley in Jamaica should be sus- 
tained generously, "as the missionary college for the 
future demands of the gradually opening fields in 
the great circle of the tropics." He declares, "We 
have no established home mission," and while spec- 
ifying no particular fields that the committee would 
recommend to the executive board, says: "Do not 
neglect the Bast. The wave that is rolling on over 
the West has its rising in the East. Whilst we 
would scatter with a broad and liberal hand over the 
stream, let us also drop precious seeds into the foun- 
tain." G. W. Blley and Benjamin Franklin are his 
associates on this committee. This was, as yet, the 
greatest anniversary of the society, in attendance, 
liberality of contributions and unanimity of spirit. 
Such men as John Smith, Walter Scott, Samuel and 
John Rodgers, D. S. Burnet, R. C. Ricketts, James 
Challen, A. S. Hayden, J. Harrison Jones and Dr. 
W. E. Belding were there. Mr. Pendleton tells of 
the presence of several brethren of great and de- 
served prominence "who have hitherto not felt fully 
reconciled to the basis upon which the co-operation 
was formed. They saw and felt that, whatever they 
had feared, this work is all of the Lord and pre-emi- 



ALMA MATER REDIDIVA 193 

nently suited to carry on the great labor of convert- 
ing the world." "For the first time since the 
organization of the society," he says, "we had the 
pleasure of welcoming to its deliberations Brother 
T. Fanning, President of Franklin College, Tennes- 
see. We trust that his co-operation will henceforth 
be as cordial and unqualified as his bearing in this 
meeting was conciliatory and courteous. With the 
future concurrence of Brother Fanning and the 
hearty and unreserved support of such men as 
Brethren Ricketts and Klley, we feel the friends of 
the society have much reason to hope for a greatly 
increased prosperity in its affairs. We fervently 
pray that the time may speedily come when the 
brethren will all be of one heart and one speech on 
the subject of missions. This indeed is the great 
commission of the church: 'Go ye into all the world 
and preach the Gospel unto every creature.' What 
a glorious and wide call is this to the latent energies 
of three hundred thousand heralds of the cross! And 
now that we are beginning to stir ourselves mightily 
for a gigantic effort, who can feel it in his heart to 
hold back or whisper a word of discouragement to 
those that are toiling in the whitening fields of this 
world-wide labor?" 

This was ever the spirit of W. K. Pendleton. 
While full of zeal for all the advanced and organized 
efforts of his brethren in the cause of miissions, he 
was always considerate and just in dealing with 
those who could not lend their approval and offer- 
ings to the missionary societies. He held in high 
esteem Benjamin Franklin, of the Review, whom he 
regarded as a strong man, though in some respects a 
13 



194 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

narrow one. On one occasion he entertained him at 
his home for a lengthy visit, and with all their 
differences on the questions then agitating the 
church, they were brethren. 

Mr, Pendleton contributes the usual quota of able 
articles to the Harbinger for this year. "Socinian- 
ism" is one of his topics; "Revival in Great Britain" 
is another, and many shorter articles, among thera a 
tender sketch of "Little Jimmy," a child of Prof. 
Pickett, "a heavenly-eyed boy of budding hope." 
"His little world of thought seemed ensphered in 
the conscious presence of God, and so he died, drop- 
ping from the arms of his parents into the embrace 
of his Savior. Sweet boy! If I^azarus was borne 
on the wings of angels to Abraham's bosom, our 
faith may fondly follow thee in thy glad ascent 
amid echoes of welcoming harmonies to thy peace- 
ful home." 

The volume closes with a lengthy and comprehen- 
sive statement from his pen, clear and strong as a 
trumpet-note, covering all the work of the Disciples 
in the great fields of education, benevolence, mis- 
sions and literature, entitled "Our Progress and 
Prospects. ' ' 



CHAPTER XVII 

STORM AND STRESS 

The year i860 marked the opening of a never- 
to-be-forgotten period in the nation's history. Rum- 
blings of a great upheaval could be distinctly heard. 
In April and May the great party conventions were 
held to nominate candidates for president and vice- 
president. I^incoln was elected in November, and 
on the 20th of December South Carolina passed the 
ordinance of secession. The country was drifting 
into the most terrible civil war in all time. Every 
section felt the premonition of the coming conflict. 
Even such quiet and remote communities, peculiarly 
devoted to the cultivation of the arts of peace, as 
the little village of Bethany, could not fail to share 
in the common anxiety. But one does not learn 
from the Millennial Harbinger that its peaceful 
waters are stirred. That journal had always stu- 
diously avoided political discussions. A single note 
comes to us to show how intense is the feeling every- 
where. A reference to Mr. Pendleton's article on 
Our Progress and Prospects, which expresses the 
fear that some institution is "too much tinctured 
with the fanatical sectionalism of politico-religious 
abolitionism" calls forth protests, and Mr. Pendle- 
ton replies. "Hitherto," he declares, "our breth- 
ren have successfully withstood every effort to divide 
them into exclusive fellowships on the unscriptural 
basis of North and South. I trust that the great 

195 



196 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

principles of union for which we have so long 
stood in unbroken column will never be abandoned 
for the shifting sand-waste of opinion as to political 
or social institutions of any kind. Let us remember 
that anti-Christ is the power in the church ever 
rising up against the church, and beware of those 
v/ho seek to divide us. I hold politics apart from 
Christianity. The principles of fellowship and co- 
operation of the two are generically different, so that 
we may be divided in the one and united in the 
other. Miserable and lame indeed is that Christian- 
ity which halts in its sublime mission of converting 
the world before the paltry and ephemeral distinc- 
tion of republican and democrat. The morality of 
the Bible must become the moving power in the 
polity of the land, but Christianity is not secular. 
Her ministers cannot, with propriety, embroil them- 
selves with the conflict of party politics. They 
must not bring politics into the pulpit, nor must 
they allow politics to bring them upon the stump." 
During the current year he gives much attention 
to Messrs. Russell and Carman, who had been "bot- 
tling moonshine" on the question of the operation 
of the Holy Spirit, a subject which Mr. Pendleton 
always handled with great clearness and force. A 
protracted meeting at Bethany he reports conducted 
"by our zealous and laborious brother, Benjamin 
Franklin, editor of the Christian Review," and 
speaks of his earnest and instructive treatment of 
great questions. This was in May, Forty souls 
were added, twenty-two of them students of the col- 
lege. Seventy-two of the students of that year are 
professing Christians. He mentions especially the 



STORM AND STRESS 197 

piety and influence of the Adelphian Society. 

The college, during this notable year, had a pros- 
perous session. Mr. Campbell reports liberal dona- 
tions. Twenty-two young men received diplomas. 
In the groves of the academy there was no note of 
discord. 

Mr. Pendleton spends the vacation in Virginia, 
preaching and presenting the claims of the college. 
He rests awhile at Cuckoo, where his venerable 
mother still lives, now seventy-three years old, 
and still sound and vigorous in mind and body. 
He visits a number of churches and conventions, 
mentions Coleman, Goss, Walthall, Parrish, Mc- 
Chesney, Cutler, and other leaders of the day. A 
part of the time is spent with James W. Goss at 
Piedmont Seminary, and he attends the Baptist As- 
sociation near by. His comments on Dr. Sampson, 
of Columbia College, John A. Broadus and James B. 
Taylor, whom he met here, are striking. He also 
visits Charlottesville, the University, and Monticello. 
Few relics of Jefferson are left. A bust in plaster 
of the statesman in one corner of the great hall, and 
another in the dining room of the brilliant but 
shameless Voltaire, he mentions. "Looking upon 
the faces of these two men," he says, "it is difficult 
to conceive how they could in any way have assim- 
ilated. The calm, benignant, far-seeing, philo- 
sophic face of the American statesman, one Vv^ould 
think, would have been a perpetual reproach to the 
narrow, cynical, sardonic grin which lends its light 
only to expose more fully the native ugliness of the 
mean-minded Frenchm.an. It is only because on 
religious subjects they think alike, and in their way 



198 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

stand almost alone in the realm of gifted minds. 
Even the fellowship of folly and the brotherhood of 
infidelity have their bonds of union. The noble 
Jefferson and the ignoble Voltaire send greetings 
through a common spite, and the philosopher smiles 
with the chuckling cynic over the imaginary 
wounds inflicted upon Christianity." 

He attended the general co-operation meeting in 
Virginia in September, which assembled at Bowling 
Green, in Caroline County, held its sessions in the 
Episcopal church, and pledged that year $3,000 for 
general work. 

He is also present at the anniversary of the A. C. 
M. S., October 23-25, in Cincinnati, and speaks of 
it as the largest gathering the society had known. 
"It was feared," he says, "that the unusual political 
excitement everywhere prevailing v^^ould interfere 
alike vnth. the size and spirit of the convention, but 
such fears were disappointed. Brethren from fifteen 
different states and territories assembled, deliberated, 
acted, v/orshiped, wept and rejoiced together in a 
common cause in most perfect harmony. Not one 
discordant note was heard." The receipts of the 
year were $15,836.15, nearly double those of the 
year before; twenty-four new congregations were or- 
ganized by the missionaries, and twelve thousand 
added to the church. The pledges for the coming 
year were twice as large as those of former years. 
Campbell, Milligan and Pettigrew were the speak- 
ers, who addressed great audiences in the Sixth 
Street Church, which, "with tears, prayers and 
pious ejaculations responded to every acceptable 
utterance of the speakers. Our brethren, young and 



STORM AND STRESS 199 

old, were all baptized in one spirit and were all over- 
flowing with tenderness and love." This was the 
general convention, let it be remembered, when the 
nation was trembling on the verge of war between 
the states; and while every religious body in the 
land was torn asunder by the awful passions of the 
hour, the Disciples of Christ were never divided. 

Mr. Pendleton's faithfulness to the conventions of 
the brotherhood is worthy of emphasis. To the last 
he loved the fellowship and wor^ of these assemblies, 
and never neglected them. His example and coun- 
sel on this score were always beneficial. No man 
can disregard the conventions of the church and not 
find himself the loser. "Brethren who have never 
attended one of these conventions," he declares, 
"can not know how much they miss. It relieves 
the dreary marches of our pilgrimage to sit down 
together around these gushing springs in the 
desert and sing the songs of Zion. It is good for 
the veteran, because, while recounting the trials of 
the way, he can also rejoice in the triumphs which 
have been achieved. It is good for the young sol- 
dier of the cross, for amid illustrious examples of 
heroic men, he will catch the spirit that bore them 
patiently and successfully through their toils, and 
go forth a purer and a nobler man." 

The year 1861 opened with the whole country- 
ablaze. Perhaps no year in the world's history has 
been so pregnant of events meaning much in the 
story of human progress. Lincoln came to the 
White House in March. Fort Sumter was bom- 
barded in April. Big Bethel was fought in June, 
and Bull Run in July. Grim visaged war had the 



20O LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

nation by the throat. Mr. Pendleton has a noble 
article in the Harbinger entitled "A Plea for 
Peace." "What," he asks, "is the business of war? 
It is to kill human beings. This is the deliberate 
calculation. To this end look all the preparations. 
The rifle and the musket, the bayonet and the 
sword, the bowie knife and the revolver, the cannon, 
the cartridge, the practice and drill of the soldier — 
all these are ingeniously contrived and elaborately 
executed to do well and surely this one end and aim 
of the battle. Is not this a serious business? Is 
not this an awful business? Prima facie, is it not a 
horribly wicked business? Without some high ab- 
solving reason, can it be right? Is it anything less 
than wanton, wholesale murder that will ciy unto 
heaven in the day of judgment against the soul that 
is guilty of it?" 

The trustees of the college hold their annual 
meeting in July, but there are few from a distance. 
Only four graduates receive degrees. Among the 
honorary list is J. A. Garfield, on whom is conferred 
the degree of Master of Arts. The impression hav- 
ing gone out that the college would suspend the 
next session, the Board gives the rumor a prompt 
and decisive correction. "They have no idea," says 
Mr. Campbell, "of allowing the college to be sus- 
pended. They are compelled to make some changes 
in the corps of instructors because of the reduction 
of patronage during the present disturbances of the 
country, but the work will go on. Professors Pen- 
dleton, Loos and Mosblech have been retained, and 
no part of the land is more peaceful and retired from 
the angry contentions that are now distracting peo- 



STORM AND STRESS 201 

pie than Bethany." Mr. Pendleton discusses the 
ordination of elders, church discipline and other 
irenic themes in the Harbinger. 

With the opening of '63 he announces that Beth- 
any College is "still working." "Our class," he 
says, "is not so large as usual, but in all other re- 
spects full of promise and hope. Bethany is truly 
an asylum of letters and peace to which all may 
come who desire to escape from the perils of the 
civil strife which is now raging over the land, and 
to devote the precious hours to the preparation of 
their heads and hearts for the future and bloodless 
victories of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ. 
To all who have promised us money to complete the 
college building we beg leave to say we are in debt 
for the work done upon the building, and we must 
pay. If they have promised even a single dollar, 
we entreat them to send it forward." Mr. Camp- 
bell writes: "We at Bethany, in common with all 
the colleges in Virginia, and indeed in all the south, 
are almost reduced to a shadow compared with by- 
gone days and years. Martial glory and military 
splendor have usurped the throne of literature, 
science and religion." 

In July there are five graduates, among them 
John L. Hunt and T. T. Holton. The whole of the 
magnificent college edifice, except the great hall, is 
under roof and enclosed. Throughout the sad and 
distressing agitations and perils of the country, the 
college has had the fullest exemption from disturb- 
ance or annoyance of any kind, and the prospect for 
the future presents no fear of interruption to the 
present peace and social harmony. Easy of access, 



202 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

healthy and free from civil and military strife, the 
student can here give his head and heart to the 
labors and delights of literature and science without 
distraction. As usual, Mr. Pendleton attends the 
A. C. M. S. which met in Cincinnati in October. 
The attendance is not so large as at former meetings, 
but harmony and good feeling prevail. "The love 
of many waxes cold," he says, "and the spirit of 
the world is overshadowing the church to a degree 
that alarms the stoutest faith. Surely our faith is 
not vain; the Lord does rule." His pen deals with 
such themes in the Harbinger as "Ordination," 
"Communion with the Sects," "A New Translation 
of Matthew," and "Church Discipline." There is 
little reference to the awful conflict then raging. 

In the opening number of his journal for '63, Mr. 
Campbell says: "The question is frequently asked, 
Will the Harbinger be continued for another year? 
Indeed, we learn that in many places it is supposed 
that both the Harbinger and Bethany College have 
been suspended. To these we would say, despite all 
the drawbacks and hindrances of these gloomy and 
heart-sickening times, which have fallen so heavily 
upon all the enterprises of Christian benevolence and 
hope, we are still, though cast down, not utterly 
forsaken, but laboring on without, it is true, the en- 
couragement and support of many who, in former 
years of toil and trial, stood so nobly by us, yet with 
the sustaining power of an unfaltering faith in the 
help and the blessing of Him whose Spirit has so 
long been our comforter and support, and whose 
service still calls us to the duties of the foremost 
ranks in the army of his kingdom. Professor W. 



STORM AND STRESS 203 

K. Pendleton, so long identified with us in all the 
interests and trusts committed to us by the confi- 
dence and liberality of a generous brotherhood, 
whether in relation to the Harbinger or the college, 
will continue, as heretofore, to be my constant co- 
operant and fellow servant to the public, and though, 
like myself, with no hope of pecuniary reward, will 
take upon himself the labor and responsibility of 
my only co-editor." 

Early in the year, Mr. Pendleton visits Detroit 
and assists at the dedication of the new church 
opened through the liberality of Richard Hawley 
and Colin Campbell, and together with Eli Regal 
and R. M. Bishop, he ordained these brethren as 
deacons and Isaac Errett as pastor of the church. 
He writes vigorously in the different issues of the 
Harbinger on the "Jewish Sabbath," on the timely 
topic, "Praying for Our Enemies," on "Trine Im- 
mersion," and on "The Qualification of Preachers," 
and reviews the life of John T. Johnson and Camp- 
bell's "Lectures and Addresses." The college com- 
mencement came in regular order. There were four 
graduated with the B. A. degree. 

With the year 1864, Mr. Campbell's name appears 
for the last time as editor of the Millennial Harbin- 
ger. The preface to this volume is his last. The 
sunset, of life, with its mystical lore of foreseeing, 
has come. For forty-one years he has been editor. 
He feels the demand of multiplied years for some 
respite from the wide and varied calls of his respon- 
sible position. He would be free from worldly cares, 
from relations for which he feels a growing distaste 
and give himself only to such exercises as befit his 



204 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

years and declining powers. "I have not only writ- 
ten much and endured much contradiction of sin- 
ners, but in travels, in speaking and thinking, in 
feeling and in suffering for the interests of our 
noble cause, I may say with the great Apostle, my 
life has in no small degree, 'superabounded.' The 
Harbinger, henceforth, will be conducted and pub- 
lished by my long and well-approved associate and 
co-laborer in many works, Professor W. K. Pendle- 
ton. I need not say that I have the fullest confi- 
dence in his fidelity and ability. He has been my 
co-editor for twenty years, and it is needless for me 
to say anything in special commendation of his 
scholarship, his enlarged Christian knowledge, his 
sound judgment, his great prudence, his temperate 
disposition, his firmness and fixedness of principle, 
his lifelong devotion to the broadest and most per- 
manent interests of our cause, and his high moral 
courage in proclaiming and defending the principles 
of apostolic Christianity. He has been my reliable 
counsellor in much of the labor of my life and my 
constant and unswerving co-operant in all the great 
interests of the cause for which we plead. It is with 
peculiar gratification that I find him thus prepared 
and willing to go on with the work from which I 
feel that it is time for me to retire; and it is my 
earnest prayer that a generous and confiding brother- 
hood will hold up his hands and give him courage 
and confidence to persevere to the end." 

*'This communication from our venerable and be- 
loved Father Campbell," says Mr. Pendleton, "can- 
not be read by any one who has felt the magic power 
of his pen, without a sense of sorrow and sadness. 



STORM AND STRESS 205 

It is some alleviation that he does not take final 
leave of his mighty labors, and still more that his 
plea for retirement is reasonable and just. Like the 
Greeks before Troy, onr venerable Nestor is still 
among ns, and if need be, can still hurl the lance or 
sway the council as war or wisdom may call for his 
aid " He has an almost painful responsibihty m 
assuming his new task, but believes the Great Mas- 
ter has laid it upon him and trusts to His help and 
guidance and throws himself upon the generous en- 
couragement and support of a brotherhood to which 
he has never appealed in vain. He takes the Har- 
binger at a discouraging time: "The mighty army 
of r'eaders that once stood in unbroken ranks about 
it have most of them straggled or deserted. We 
succeed to shattered columns, but it is not without 
hope that they will rally to the old signal.'' The 
subjects treated by Mr. Pendleton's pen during the 
year are many and varied. "McGarvey on Acts, 
< 'Type-Teaching," "Pew-Renting and Organ 
Music " "Shall Women Exhort in Public?" "God- 
liness " "The A. C. M. Society," "The Tree of 
Life,'' "The Parable of the Ten Virgins," are some 

of his themes. . , . -. 

An interesting sketch he gives of Archbishop 
Whateley, who died about this time. He was a 
warm admirer of this great and singularly gifted 
man Two anecdotes he relates of the distinguished 
author and prelate that are worth rememberiug. 
Whateley was quite a punster, and about six months 
before his death happened to sit beside Dr. John 
Gregg, Bishop of Cork, at a dinner party, and called 
UDon the Bishop to pass the wine, saying, "Though 



2o6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

you are John Cork, you mustn't stop the bottle!" 
Bishops signed the name of the diocese instead of 
their surnames; thus Dr. Whateley's style was, 
Richard, Dublin. But as the Bishop of Cork hap- 
pened to be a teetotaler, the joke was all the better. 
Again, not long before his death, in passing along 
one of the streets of Dublin, he met a friend riding 
on horseback, to whom he said, "I'm glad to see 
you, Mr. Speare; have you become an equestrian?" 
"Yes," replied the other, "I have been ill and the 
doctor has advised me to ride, saying that the toss- 
ing about on horseback will do me good." "All 
right, all right," said the Archbishop. "I say," he 
continued, "have you named your horse yet, 
Speare?" "No, I have not." "Well, then," cried 
the Doctor, "call him Shakespeare!^'' Mr. Pen- 
dleton is not surprised at this side of the charac- 
ter of the author of "Historical Doubts of the Ex- 
istence of Napoleon Bonaparte." 

He is present at the meeting of the O. C. M. S. 
at Belief ontaine, Ohio, in May, and delivers an ad- 
dress on "The Demand for an Elevated Christian 
Literature," which is published in the Harbinger. 
He is also in the second annual meeting of the 
Pennsylvania Missionary Society at Pittsburg in 
August. He attends the nineteenth anniversary of 
the A. C. M. S. in Cincinnati, in October, and de- 
livers one of the principal addresses. The conven- 
tion in '63 was one of but few of these general con- 
ventions that was missed by him. The fortunes of 
the society had been under a cloud. The society 
that year "violated her constitution in introducing 
and forcing to a wilful vote a set of political resolu- 



STORM AND STRESS 207 

tions." This, Mr. Pendleton and others thought 
an error. Many thought of abandoning the society. 
Mr. Pendleton urged that this should not be done; 
that it was human to err, divine to forgive, and wise 
to reform. "Let us forget the errors of the past, 
only to profit by them for the future," he writes, 
"and, returning to the old ways, take up our society 
upon 'the liberal arms of our catholic missionary 
spirit, and push her usefulness and power to greater 
heights than ever before. We should not be dis- 
couraged because a single stone of stumbling and 
rock of offence has been thrown in our path. 
Doubtless many who followed in this ill-advised 
political zeal were as honest and sincere in their 
action as any who oppose them could be. Many 
are the extravagances of a time like this which a 
large Christian charity must cover over, forgive and 
forget. Great Christian schemes must not be aban- 
doned in sudden fits of excitement. We must feel 
that we are entrusted with mighty interests and 
called to carry them safe through every trial and 
over all seas, rough or smooth, calm or stormy, 
peaceful or booming with the tumult of battle. The 
Saviour plants his kingdom in the hearts of men, 
not on the territories or states of earth. These may 
be united or divided, rise and flourish in glory and 
renown, or sink in fragments and ruin into forget- 
fulness, but the kingdom which hath foundations 
will stand, and the Lord will keep his people. Is 
there this faith in the church?" It was thus this 
noble man of God plead in these troublous times for 
peace and unity and righteousness and the noblest 
interests of the church of Christ. 



2o8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

The college this year catalogues fifty students, 
and has a graduating class of six. The trustees 
announce that notwithstanding the general financial 
revolution through which the country has passed, 
Bethany College has not lost one dollar of her col- 
lected endowment. Through the watchful care and 
foresight of her treasurer, all has been saved. On 
endowment $72,057.92 has been collected, and on 
college building, $44,889.15. B. W. Johnson, late 
president of Eureka College, is called to the Chair of 
Mathematics. Virginia has become almost identi- 
fied in the association of the public mind with the 
thought of terrific battles and mighty battlefields. 
Her hills and valleys and plains have trembled be- 
neath a shock of arms that has been known to no 
other land or age, and the imm^ortality that belongs 
to the scenes of such deeds shall be hers. Bethany 
has been free from disturbance and peril. Though 
danger has been on the right hand and on the left, 
it has never been permitted to come nigh Bethany. 
Not even a squad of either army has ever passed 
along her streets. No guerrillas have ever visited 
her borders. In the midst of martial movements 
that appall the imagination even by their magni- 
tude, her people have never heard the cry of the 
wounded, been startled by the roar of artillery, or 
snuffed the smoke of battle. A merciful Providence 
has ever lifted upon them the light of His counte- 
nance and given them peace. On this account 
Bethany College, above most all others, is a place 
for the resort of all who, remote from the excite- 
ments of war and the temptations to strife, may de- 
sire a tranquil refuge for study and preparation for 
the coming calls of a time of peace. 




UNITY YANCEY PENDLETON. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
INTER PONTES SACROS 

A man's letters reveal his character possibly as 
nothing else. Here we move indeed among the 
sacred fountains. '•'•Epistola non erzcbescit^'''' said 
Cicero. A letter does not blush; it is not self-con- 
scious; it is unreserved; it unveils the hidden man of 
the heart, as the treasures Cicero has left us afford 
one of the best illustrations. 

A few selections taken at random from Mr. Pen- 
dleton's letters will let in a light upon his inner life 
as well as upon other matters of interest to the 
reader of these records. 

Here is a tender letter, written February 9, 1842, 
to his brother Joseph, in which he speaks very seri- 
ously of the need of preparation for the world to 
come, and alludes to the "almost universal excite- 
ment pervading the land upon the subject of the 
personal and glorious advent of the I^ord this year. 
It is growing stronger and stronger daily, and the 
great zeal and confidence of its chief advocate, Mr. 
Miller, seem well calculated still to heighten it. 
We are all examining the whole subject of prophe- 
cies at this time in Bethany. We meet every Sun- 
day night and have a familiar conversation upon 
certain parts selected in order and agreed upon a 
week beforehand in order to give time for examina- 
tion. The great learning and ability of some of the 
participants and the lively interest of all serve to 
14 209 



210 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

render them intensely interesting to those who can 
at all realize the grand and imposing events which are 
the subject of inquiry and examination." Thomas 
Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Robert Richardson, 
James T. Barclay, W. K. Pendleton and others prob- 
ably constituted this group. 

Again, in January, 1844, to his brother Joseph he 
writes, appealing to him to become a Christian: 
"The consideration of a happy union on earth so 
naturally leads to the desire for its continuance in 
heaven that I was led involuntarily into the expres- 
sion of the wish that the grave might not forever sun- 
der that which has so blessed the family at Cuckoo. 
I love much to think of home and all its hallowing 
influences, and I often employ the few leisure mo- 
ments that I can spare to reflection, in thinking of 
the various causes that have contributed to direct 
into such pleasant channels the currents of our lives. 
These, however, all resolve themselves into two — 
father and mother. Faithfulness, wisdom and the 
tenderest aflection were to us as household divini- 
ties, and, oh, hov/ richly they have abounded in 
fruits to all! The young and thoughtless value but 
lightly the weight of precept and example, but how 
often to us, who have known some little of what it 
is to act for one's self in the world — how often to us 
come up from the clouded memories of the past, 
laden with wisdom and instruction, the lessons of 
one whose voice is now still forever on earth, and 
whose face we shall never again look upon, except 
in that better land, to which we fondly hope his 
spirit has already taken its flight. I remember to 
have heard him, when he lay upon his bed from 



INTER FONTES SACROS 211 

which his spirit spread its wings for eternity, say 
that his children had been blessed with signal op- 
portunities for knowing their duty, and if they did 
it not they must themselves confess the justice of 
their condemnation." 

To his mother, whom he has just visited Septem- 
ber I, 1847: "My house is most desolate, and I 
feel altogether lonely after the continued company 
of my many dear and affectionate relatives for so 
many days in old Virginia. I shall soon forget my 
loneliness, however, in the unavoidable company of 
returning cares, and deaden if not soothe the com- 
plaints of memory by the clamorous calls of busi- 
ness, I must not live for myself alone, but in part 
for others, and it were both ungrateful and unmanly 
to yield to the pressure of my own sorrows or griefs 
when so many high objects call me to bear up and to 
work. I could not think well of myself were I to 
cease from doing good, or at least trying, and sure I 
am T could not be blessed with the approbation of 
God. Still I feel an unwillingness to enter upon 
my labors which I do not remember to have felt be- 
fore. I should rather perhaps say an irresoluteness, 
for unwilling I am not, yet do I shrink as at the 
presence of some overpowering difficulty. My mind 
does not easily despair, nor do difficulties generally 
either exhaust or appall it, but it has spent its ener- 
gies upon itself. I have been too long and too fully 
blessed with domestic joys to give them up without 
a struggle. To return to my house after so pleasant 
a communion with my relations, who are nearest to 
me on earth, and be reawakened to its desolation, 
with no present prospect of enjoying, in justice to 



212 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

her tender and forming mind, the constant company- 
even of my child, is what many another has done 
and borne, and what I do not murmur at because it 
is His will, but still it is a privation I may and do 
feel with something more than common bitterness, 
and which I know you will pardon me for express- 
ing. It is a relief to have some one to bear our sor- 
rows. Christ has borne them in their eternal conse- 
quences, but there are those we may feel and share 
with each other, and thus lighten. Mine have been 
with myself. No ear but the listening one of night 
has heard them, and if a voice of consolation has 
sometimes come to me, it has been from the spirit 
land. I do not speak this in complaint, though 
with tears, for it has been my choosing to feel in 
secret, and therefore thus in secret to suffer. I 
would not write thus to one less dear to me, who 
could not understand me as merely giving relief to 
my feelings by telling them to one who can regard 
them as unaffected. I cherish not one unkind feeling 
towards a creature that liveth, but, striving always 
to keep a conscience void of offence toward God 
and man, I pray equally to forgive and be forgiven." 
May, 1848, he writes to his mother a newsy story 
of himself and Campbellina, and of the college and 
the Campbells. He has been much out of doors, 
and he and the little girl are "as coppery as In- 
dians"; he speaks of himself as well, save "a feeble 
and often imperfect digestion." He describes his 
flower garden, with a hundred varieties of flowers. 
Mr. Campbell has gone to Pittsburg to marry a son 
of Walter Scott to a daughter of Samuel Church. 
"My duties are very multiform and arduous," he 



INTER FONTES SACROS 213 

says, "and I am kept thin with the toil." He is 
engaged in planning and drafting bridges for the 
road to Wheeling. He has twelve acres in corn, and 
eight in wheat. He mentions three students who 
have joined the church recently, young men of the 
very first promise in usefulness, one of whom is 
McGarvey. He speaks of old Grandfather Campbell 
as afflicted with bad eyesight, but his mind "as yet 
quite active and discriminating." 

To his mother, August 25, 1854, he writes from 
Bethany of his trial in again leaving her and his 
children who are at Cuckoo, and of his parting with 
"Phil" and sister "Jane" and "Campbellina" in 
Baltimore. "I hope Campbellina may in some 
measure requite your kindness by her grateful affec- 
tion; she may not appreciate it now as she ought to 
do, but she is quite young and will feel more fully 
as she advances in that knowledge which only ex- 
perience and reflection can ever give us." He has 
great comfort in his children. "When I have been 
with them, noticing the germs of their future char- 
acters gradually expanding so much in harmony 
with my hopes, it affords me food for many a dream 
that might be darker were it otherwise. I hope 
they will both in time feel that the fear of the lyord 
is the beginning of wisdom." "Mr. Campbell and 
Virginia," he says, "think you look as much like 
the late Mr. Thomas Campbell as if you were his 
sister. This is certainly so, at least if we are any 
judges of the likeness of human faces." This letter 
closes, "Good-bye, my dear, dear and honored 
mother, and believe me sincerely and truly your 
affectionate son, William." 



214 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

To Mr. Alvan Lathrope, of New York, who had 
visited "Bethany House," and writes Mr. Campbell, 
Mr, Pendleton replies at request of "Mother Camp- 
bell," as Mr. Campbell is absent: 

"Mr. Campbell has been in Baltimore now for 
more than a week. We have heard that his lec- 
tures on the great and sublime themes of Redemp- 
tion have attracted thousands who have been com- 
pelled reluctantly to go away ungratified. No house 
can hold the people that crowd to hear him. I re- 
gret that you did not have an opportunity of becom- 
ing acquainted with him, and also that you were 
denied the pleasure of hearing him speak. Party 
prejudice has done Mr. Campbell much injustice, 
and it is only a few noble spirits out of our own 
nominal connection that can rise so far superior to 
its ungenerous judgments as to appreciate either his 
genius or his labors of benevolence and love. 
Through the influence of these few, however, a more 
just impression is being gradually made even upon 
the obdurate spirit of prejudice itself, and if it please 
not the Father of all mercies to prolong his life till 
he shall experience the latter days to be more 
blessed than the former, I doubt not that his name 
will be associated by the generations of the good to 
come with those of the purest and brightest spirits 
that have adorned the annals of the church, 

"This is Saturday night; to-morrow Mr. Camp- 
bell addresses, at the invitation of both Houses of 
Congress, the representatives of our nation in the 
National Hall at Washington City, and to-morrow, 
the Lord willing, we shall meet in our humble tem- 
ple to praise and invoke our common Father. We 



INTER FONTES SACROS 215 

talked when you were here of pulling it down and 
building a new and larger one, but it yet stands 
upon the grassy bank of the Buffalo— a monument 
of more primitive times that has outlived many a 
bright spirit who once worshiped under its roof. 
You will doubtless sometimes recall this simple 
structure, and, it may be, a few of those who met 
with you there. Should he who now addresses you 
chance to be among that number, he would ask no 
more than to be remembered in your prayers. 

"Our venerable and aged grandfather still enjoys 
his wonted health. His eyesight is almost totally 
gone; the privation to him is indeed great. Still, 
he feeds upon the sincere milk of the Word. His 
favorite enjoyment in his blindness is to repeat over 
to some friends the numerous spiritual songs with 
which his memory was stored before his eyes had 
failed and knowledge from this entrance was quite 
shut out. He truly hungers and thirsts after right- 
eousness, and the great Teacher hath said, 'Blessed 
are such, for they shall be filled.' " 

To Mrs. Pendleton from Cincinnati, October, 1856, 
he writes of the Missionary Convention: "We have 
quite a thin representation of the churches. Yester- 
day the Bible Society was disposed of and its funds 
applied to the Missionary Society. Brother Pickett 
is here, and has made many kindly inquiries after 
you and the baby. Brother Pettigrew is also here, 
and we had mutual congratulations on the 'little 
blessings.' .... Speak many kind words to 
our dear Willie for me. He promised me to be a 
good and obedient boy during my absence, and I 
trust you will be able to tell me that he has kept his 



2i6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

promise. Our baby greet with a wee kiss, and be 
sure she suffers not from the whiskers — the frightful 
things! I know nothing more alarming than Grand- 
ma's spectacles — only to think how the little thing 
made up its mouth and cried at them." 

To Mrs. Pendleton, in Wheeling for medical 
treatment in 1857, after speaking of his loneliness 
on account of her absence: "You may rest assured 
I saunter about more than ever among my garden 
beauties. I think I shall soon have an individual 
acquaintance with each particular daisy. I much 
fear your fine macrophilla is gone — poor thing! It 
looks like a bereaved heart. You will miss its mod- 
est roselets more than anything else in the garden. 
From the garden to the kitchen is a natural transi- 
tion, but now by no means an agreeable one. We 
are poor in the good things of the larder; have had 
no meat since you left. Still, we pillage the hens' 
nests and get along. Virgin says the living is first- 
rate. She and Nellie get along very happily with 
Fred and Lewis to help them. The four went 
horseback riding this afternoon. , . . Our good 
and hopeful twa dogs, Sprightly and Bob, killed a 
black hen to-day, for which I thrashed them soundly. 
I don't think they will repeat the deed again. Kiss 
our dear baby. Love to cousin Joe, M. and the 
children. Bridget, Rosanna and the whole family 
join in love to you and the little duck." 

To Mrs. Pendleton, at the Bath Alum Springs, 
July 17th, 1857: "Mr. Campbell came up and took 
dinner with us to-day. He went into the parlor and 
heard Cammie play the 'Carnival of Venice.' He 
Vvras pleased to express much admiration both of the 



INTER PONTES SACROS 217 

piece and of the performance. He .took a peep, too, 
at the dear baby, and patted it on the head with the 
kindness of a patriarchal blessing. I took her in 
my arms this evening after tea, and walked all over 
the yard with her and through the flower garden. 
She never seemed happier, but I could not but think 
her a little pensive. Perhaps it vv^as 'a softness of 
the hour creeping o'er her heart like dew along the 
flower,' but I thought it might be the shadowed 
image of a deep privation, which in Scripture is 
used as the most eloquent symbol of human woe and 
helplessness, and the most potent to move the divine 
sympathy and compassion of the great Father of the 
fatherless — the privation of an orphaned heart! I 
fancied her little soul was struggling with the mys- 
tery of the want which it could not express, but 
which the absence of the sweet touches of a mother's 
hand I know must occasion in the dim depths of her 
undeveloped consciousness. But, dear creature, she 
is sleeping now, and, if thinking at all, dreaming of 
better things than life can ever give her. 

*'I went out this evening to see if there were any 
new flowers out to greet you in your mountain seclu- 
sion, but I found none, only the old ones looked 
sweeter than ever. It is so, I said to myself, of all 
true beauty, material or spiritual. It is a joy for- 
ever if the heart that looks upon it be in sympathy 
with its loveliness. It is especially so, I said, with 
the one we love. Memory is like a sweet twilight, 
throwing its rosy colors over everything we look at 
in her, and blending light and shade so deftly that 
both are lost in the beauty they kindle around her. 

"I have no news, dear Kate. I feel that all my 



2i8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

feelings towards you are neither new nor old. Im- 
mortals, you know, have neither youth nor age — the 
same yesterday, to-day and forever — they seem never 
to have been born, but only to have awakened from 'a 
sleep and a forgetting' to revive affections which are 
and have been eternal. You will perhaps say this 
is metaphysical, but you will know by the responses 
of your own heart that it is most delightfully true. 
God bless us all. 

"P. S. — I have been translating some of the fine 
old eloquence of the Hebrew of Job, and can bury 
myself in the sorrows of that great man of Uz so 
completely that time moves unnoticed, save by its 
loss." 

From a letter to Mrs. Pendleton, July 19th, 1857: 
"Willie expressed a strong desire to write to you 
this morning, but he is now at the Society. He was 
big to bursting nigh with a speech, and went down 
some hours in advance of the hour for fear he would 
be fined. The chief item he wished to communicate 
was that he had torn his pantaloons or bursted his 
knee through three times to-day, notwithstanding 
the oft-repeated stitches and stitchings of his sister. 
We have just had a tremendous thunder-storm. The 
wind blew for about three minutes a perfect gust, but 
it stopped suddenly, and then we had a gentle and 
refreshing shower. I had just got round our verbena 
beds. They were clean and very thirsty, and since 
the shower are very beautiful. I look at our garden 
many times a day for you, dear Kate, and think of 
every flower what you would think could you see it. 
The baby — for she and the flowers and you are in- 
separable — seems determined to surprise everybody 



INTER PONTES SACROS 219 

by her goodness and personal independence of any 
and everybody ¥/lio chooses to desert her. She is 
spunky, as you know she has a good right to be, 
and is determined not to let on, no matter how 
much she misses you. She is asleep now, or per- 
haps she would send her uncle a dignified recogni- 
tion for his kindness in taking you away to the 
Springs. 

"I received a note from Adams Express OfSce last 
mail informing me that a package was in their office 
at Wheeling av/aiting my order, valued at $6,000! 
I was, of course, no little surprised until I opened 
another letter, which I found to be from Mrs. Tub- 
man, informing me that she had remitted me six 
railroad bonds of $1,000 each, to complete now her 
endowment of $16,000. This is noble, to promise 

well and to do better Best love to Hez 

from all, not including the baby, whose mind on 
that subject I am not sure about." 

He is with Mr. Campbell on a soliciting tour 
after the burning of the college, and writes to his 
wife from Washington of his visit to the White 
House with Judge Black and others to call on the 
President and Miss Lane: ''We stayed about an 
hour, and found ourselves very agreeably entertained 
in an unostentatious, free, democratic sort of way. 
Miss Lane is about as good-looking as so plain a 
face could well be. There is nothing brilliant either 
in her mind or face, but at the same time there is 
nothing to object to positively in either. You have 
seen such very good faces and hearts that you could 
not particularly find fault with anything about them. 
Just such is Miss Lane, the niece of the President, 



220 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and at present mistress of the White House. When 
I say we stayed an hour, I must tell you that part of 
the time was given to the President, who is a man 
of the highest order of statesmanly qualities. I was 
very much pleased with him, and feel more and 
more assured of a safe, prudent, firm and enlarged 
policy in the administration of our national affairs." 
He closes this letter: "Speak of me to our little 
angel baby, and commend us all to Him who alone 
can preserve and bless us." 

Again, on the same trip he writes from New 
York, and is anxious lest the baby is not sufficiently 
"exercised out of doors." "You know what a crav- 
ing she has for the free, open skies, and how, like a 
tranquil dream, she will lie in her carriage and look 
up into the quiet heavens as though she felt a sym- 
pathy with its deep and eternal beauty. A little 
more of this medicine will do her good, body and 
soul. There is nothing that so deepens our nature 
as to live early and lovingly under the canopying 
colors of the deep blue sky. Celestial influences 
brood over us in these still moments and quicken to 
orderly life the chaotic powers of the soul, and these 
energize into healthful motion the animal spirits, 
and thus the body grows fitted to the mind and re- 
sponsive to its nobler emotions." 

He arranges to read with Mrs. Pendleton some 
Scripture lesson daily, and in a letter from Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, June 24, 1858, he says: "I think 
this will reach you next Thursday, and that night I 
shall think of you as beginning to read with me the 
sweet psalms of the sweet singer of Israel — thus, 
first, I, 2 and 3; second, 4, 5 and 6; third, 7 and 8; 



INTER FONTES SACROS 221 

fourth, 9 and 10; fifth, 11, 12 and 13; sixth, 14, 15, 
16 and 17; seventh, 18; eighth, 19 and 20; ninth, 
21 and 22. This will serve to direct us nine even- 
ings. Before the time lapses I will designate still 
farther our course. I thank you much from my in- 
most heart for this pious suggestion of your love. It 
will be a sweet termination to each day for me thus 
to meet you over the sublime poetry of this man 
after God's own heart." 

In this journey he writes constantly of Mr. Camp- 
bell's great addresses, of the hospitality of friends 
everywhere, and of difficulties in the way of secur- 
ing funds. "It is a hard road to travel," he says; 
"our mission is no holiday sport. I trust it may 
never be my duty to travel on another such mission. 
The plan we are adopting is the only one by which 
we can raise the money. Everybody says the col- 
lege must be rebuilt; at the same time they seem to 
think that everybody ought to help to do it, and of 
course we must visit this multitudinous and almost 
ubiquitous Mr. Everybody. Would that we had 
them all, every mother's son of them, in one vast 
amphitheater, that, with the voice of a Stentor, we 
might break open their purse-strings and shake out 
fifty thousand at a single shock of our imploring 
eloquence!" 

Again, the same year he is traveling in Missouri 
for the college, and on a steamer in the Missouri 
River, which is "backing and advancing, sounding 
and sticking in the mud." He is much disgusted 
with it all, and has been studying people in the 
cabin: "I belive the fashionables are thinking of 
introducing fruits for head ornaments instead of 



222 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

flowers, and I would suggest that for many persons 
leeks and onions be the principal commodity! A 
few sweet potatoes would set off some noses, and if 
you will notice in traveling you will be surprised to 
see how many people are onion-eyed. Upon the 
whole, I wish I were well out of this boat." 

_From Bethany he writes to Mrs. Pendleton at 
Bloomfield, Ohio, October, 1858: ''This is Satur- 
day evening, and the weather seems to be hanging 
upon the clouds, and these upon doubt. Upon 
slightest provocation they would spit snow in your 
face, and look coldly down upon you afterwards as 
much as to say, 'Take that, or you will get worse'; 
but I feel as if I should be very apt to say, 'Do that 
again, if you dare!' To-night, Donati's comet was 
to have made her most gracious sweep to the earth, 
but we shall not see her. She is truly coy to shake 
her crinoline at so respectful a distance as fifty-two 
millions of miles, and then curve away again as if 
she would have us follow her into some retired 
haunts of the outer void. But our good mother is 
not given to running after loose company. She is a 
staid old matron, walking her household rounds very 
composedly, and dressing herself according to the 
season with very considerable chasteness, and we 
think in great good taste. Just now she is getting 
on her fall wrappings, and methinks they were 
never more beautiful. But, then, she is under so 
bad a light this evening that she does not show to 
advantage, and I have just in sheer politeness turned 
away from looking at her. 

"Truly the earth and the heavens are filled with 
glory. Blended crimson and gold and green are 



INTER FONTES SACROS 223 

smiling on tlie hilltops and glancing their tremulous 
tints from every sunny slope, and the college bell is 
swinging in sacred harmony in the new chapel spire, 
and the hum of busy, bustling students is abroad 
once more, and joy itself seems out on holiday. 
Nature is a great teacher. A sweeter singer than 
David is she to many a soul-sick Saul, if they would 
but listen to her harmony. Night before last we 
read that while the Lord sat upon a throne, high 
and lifted up, and filled the temple with his train, 
one seraph cried unto another, and said, 'Holy, 
holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is 
full of his glory!' and the posts of the door moved 
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was 
filled with smoke. I never saw this sublime vision 
in the light in which it recurs to me to-day. That 
seraph voice seems pealing through the wide temple 
of the universe, and His glory in trailing clouds is 
filling everything. A haze of Indian summer and 
the trembling air, standing like posts to the portals 
of the distant sky, echo the sound, and nature's 
temple is full of praise. The pious heart strives to 
join, and sighs for the touch of the live coal from the 
altar that its lips may be hallowed for the chorus." 
October i, i860, to. Mrs. Pendleton he writes, in- 
closing a little piece of Latin verse, which very 
greatly pleased him, both for its sentiment and 
music, and which he renders in some words of his 
own and begs her to enjoy: 

" 'THE APOSTlvE JOHN. 

" 'Volat avis sine meta, 

Quo nee vates, nee propheta 

Evolavit altius. 



224 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Tarn implenda, quam impleta, 
Nunquam vidit tot secreta 
Purus hortio purius.' 

" 'Without a bound, a bird he flies, 

Than whom nor bard, nor prophet wise. 

Higher hath spread his pinion. 
Of mysteries past, or yet to rise, 
None e'er beneath the circling skies 

Hath had so full a vision.' 

"I always make a poor hand witli the joys of the 
past, but the present and the future I can fill with 
some homely pleasures that fill my own heart and 
run over in free measures to the hearts of others. 

"It is a kind world, after all, and God forbid that 
I should ever croak about its inhumanity. I think 
the heart must itself first become very loving before 
it can see the love that is all around it. My eyes 
fill with tears, sweet tears of gratitude, when I think 
of how many people, for no merit of mine, love me, 
as I have reason to believe they do. God bless them 
for it with a double blessing." 

From Washington City to Mrs. Pendleton, July 7, 
1862: "I see nothing here to make me happy. 
The nation is in travail. Its councils are divided 
and the rulers are at their wits' end. Entre nous^ I 
can see there is a want of brains — great, grasping 
brains — that can sweep the mighty area of this pres- 
ent game of war, and with thoughts lifted up sub- 
limely to God, see over and under and through it 
the rosy dawn of a great Providence adjusting the 
past in storm and providing for the future in sun- 
shine and love, only to be felt by the heart humble 
in prayer, and seen by the eye washed by the puri- 
fying tears of contrition. I heard the noble old Crit- 



INTER FONTES SACROS 225 

tendeti asked this afternoon if he saw any hope, and 
he said, with quivering lip and faltering voice, 
'Honestly and candidly — none!' Another, a sena- 
tor, in his place on the floor, said that if the fight 
was for vengeance, he warned his compeers that it 
would be in vain. Not only did Revelation say, 
'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' but the truth was 
a truth of nature written upon all the pages of his- 
tory. And so it is. When the precept cannot con- 
trol and guide, God teaches by experience. But, 
oh, how sad, sad, how very sad, is this lesson 
already! God in his mercy make it very short!" 

Now come the sad letters of the war-time. Sep- 
tember 10, 1862, he writes: "Mrs. Loos has 
heard of the death of Prof. Loos's brother-in-law. 
He fell in some of the numerous battles between 
Cedar Mountain and Washington — shot through the 
head. Our dear nephew, Adjutant-General William 
B. Pendleton, lost a leg in the battle of Cedar Moun- 
tain. Alas, alas! Poor, dear sister Betty — John 
dead, and William, her pride — her noblest — maimed 
for life! Her most beautiful flower of all the five, 
and at scarcely twenty-three, so high in rank, where 
rank is a measure of merit — how can she bear it!" 

He says: "King looks brighter than a button, 
and threw himself forward at once to come to me. I 
think from what they say of his fondness for Irish 
potatoes that there must have been some son or 
daughter of Erin in our remote ancestry, yours or 
mine, or perhaps both." 

He speaks of Birdie: "Her tongue is nearer to 
perpetual motion than the screw of Archimedes, and 
her thoughts as flitting as butterflies in spring." 
15 



226 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Here is au illustration of the kindness of heart 
and readiness of resource of the Bethany professor: 
"This morning, just as I was starting to my lecture 
on Matthew, a little boy came, panting and out of 
breath, for me to run down to Mr. Steel's, that the 
'old man had fallen down on his head with the 
apology,' and they wanted me. I thought I would 
go down and attend to my class, and then call and 
see him, but upon second thought it occurred to me 
that there might be no doctor in town, and I ran 
into the house and got my lancet and hastened 
down. I found a great crowd assembled, and the 
old man very nearly gone. I immediately bled him 
in both arms, and with this and other surface appli- 
ances, in about ten minutes he came to himself, and 
I trust now he will get up. In about an hour they 
had two doctors, and they concluded that I had done 
all that the case required, and left." The average 
professor would have waited until after the lecture, 
in the first place, and in the second, would be ig- 
norant of the lancet. 

"The dogs are busy barking at the echo of their 
own voices, and there seems to be something offen- 
sive to them in the night air, they howl and carry 
on so wildly. Did you ever notice how much more 
the dogs bark some nights than others? There are 
more things in the heavens to them than to us, I 
guess! How little we know of the dog's knowledge! 
May they not have a sense we know not of to spy 
the invisible and bark at it?" 

To Mrs. Pendleton, September 21, 1864: "Our 
dear little Phil misses you very much, looks quite 
sad and forsaken, but is very quietly resigned. The 



INTER PONTES SACROS 227 

nurse announced the first tooth to-day. No one, I 
think, has seen it, but she says she can feel it with 
her thimble! It ought to be sharp and have an eye 
to it! . . . . Cammie, I think, is improving. 
She rides about gracefully upon Dolly, who she 
thinks does better under the saddle than in a buggy, 
even. Happy delusion!" 

When off for the college: "There is no part of 
my public life that I have so great a distaste for as 
this of asking people to give us money. I get down 
to it with pain and travail, and out of it with a sigh 
of relief. But I know it must be done or the great 
and good work to which my life is given must be in 
a measure a failure. Were it not for Brother Allen 
and his taste and gift for the work, I should despair. 
I can help to plan and devise ways and means, but 
it is his forte to push them upon the generosity and 
conscience of the people." Hopeful, however, he 
is always. ''I am full of confidence and hope as to 
our great work. I perceive that Bethany has a deep 
and abiding place in the confidence and affections of 
our brethren. The Lord is with us, I am assured, 
and if we are true to our mission he will abundantly 
bless us." 

Very sympathetically he always writes his wife 
about the garden and the flowers. In June, 1866, 
he writes: "Do not forget my orders about your 
garden genuflections. I would like for you to real- 
ize your dream of a sweet yard. You do so much to 
please my heart that I am always more than anxious 
to have you also do all that you like to please your 
own eyes. Our home is sweet to me always, and its 
quiet beauty never seems dearer to me than when I 



228 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

think of it as the scene also of your happiness. I 
could not love it if I did not see in it the reflection 
of your own appreciative eyes. I am never so 
charmed with it as when I contemplate it as an ex- 
pression of your own heart and taste. It is a pic- 
ture all the lovelier because of the loved artist that 
has given it its beauty. I sometimes wish for a mo- 
ment, only for a m.oment, because it is puerile to in- 
dulge in idle wishes, but I sometimes wish that I 
could afford to realize to you the full measure of 
your own beautiful fancies in the decoration of our 
earthly home, and this always points me to the 
heavenly home, and what it must be and will be to 
you and to me to be there. Our love of the beauti- 
ful will be a part of our fitness to enjoy together the 
paradise of the skies. Thus true love ever lifts to 
heaven as the scene of its fullest bliss, and thus 
cultivation of a pure and grateful taste is the true 
nurture of piety." 



CHAPTER XIX 
EDITOR OF THE HARBINGER 

In January, 1865, the title page of the Bethany 
Magazine reads for the first time, The Millennial 
Harbinger, conducted by W. K, Pendleton; co-ed- 
itor, C. L. Loos. The introduction to the volume 
is written in Mr. Pendleton's best vein. He is full 
of faith and hope. "Many brethren," he says, "are 
discouraged. The wrinkled front of war alarms 
them. But do they forget it is theirs to smooth this 
wrinkled front of war — to persuade men to beat 
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into 
pruning hooks? To lift up their sword against their 
fellows no longer and to learn war no more? O that 
the church, which is not of the world, could rise to 
the glory of working only for the kingdom of 
peace!" 

In outlining his program for the Journal, he pro- 
poses to give special attention to The Elements of 
Christianity, Church Organization and Discipline, 
Expositions of Scripture, Christian Antiquities, the 
Natural History of the Bible, Notices of Transla- 
tions, Notes and Criticisms on Current Religious 
Literature, Present Phases of Infidelity, Biographical 
Sketches, Christian Benevolence, Religious Intelli- 
gence — Home and Foreign, Affairs Among the 
Brotherhood, and Words to Little Ones. 

The discussion of instrumental music in the 
churches is now on. "We notice a growing heat 

229 



230 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tinder the discussion of this subject," Mr. Pendle- 
ton writes, "but let us keep cool. We will commit 
less sin against logic and music both, and be much 
surer of victory. A man can make heresy out of 
any subject and almost any side of it by sinful vio- 
lence in his advocacy of it. I do not think the 
organ is likely to be a siren of much mischief 
among us at present. Controversy ought to be 
against 'melodeons,' as it is this cheap form of 
musical instrument that for the most part satisfies 
the present instrumental extravagance of our music- 
al amateurs. It is a smaller sin measured in cubical 
feet, and not so noisy; but then if there be merit in 
a musical instrument as a means of praise, let us 
give the Lord the best. It is a shame to make his 
entertainments so cheap and feeble as they must be 
from the little foot-bellows of a melodeon." This 
controversy is curious reading in the light of to-day. 
In a series of papers on skeptical difficulties, the 
editor treats, among other questions, the authorship 
of the Pentateuch, which is instructive in view of 
more modern positions on this subject. "Unques- 
tionably," he says, "Moses was the author of these 
books. First, our Savior ascribes them to Moses. 
'Did not Moses give you the law?' he asks; and 
again, 'Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he 
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the 
things concerning himself.' Now, let it be remem- 
bered that at the time our Savior spoke, the expres- 
sion 'the law,' meant the five books of the Penta- 
teuch, and Moses meant their author. Philip said to 
Nathanael, 'We have found him of whom Moses in 
the lav/ and all the prophets did write.' Here now 



EDITOR OF THE HARBINGER 231 

is clear, positive and direct authority in proof of 
the proposition, and we may say it is as strong as 
the evidence on which we believe on Christ." 

Pastors and Teachers, Denominational Aspects, 
the Conversion of Paul, Church Organization, Fore- 
knowledge and Free Will, Theological Schools and 
the Missouri Test Oath, are some of his leaders for 
the year, but perhaps the most striking and oppor- 
tune is on the Death of the President. It will be 
read to-day with interest. 

"Abraham lyincoln, the sixteenth President of the 
United States, is dead! Suddenly and without a 
moment's warning, he has fallen by the hand of an 
assassin! The morning of the 14th of April, 1865, 
rose upon him full of hope; and all that anxious day 
his head and his heart were busy and strong in what 
he fondly thought would bring speedy peace and 
rest to our disturbed and weary people; and the 
evening found him amid the gay and joyous throng 
of hearts beating free with a sense of mighty na- 
tional agonies endured and ended, and lending the 
Vv^elcome of his presence to the happy signs of re- 
turning peace. But in a moment how all is changed! 
The deadly bullet enters the brain, so busy with the 
future fate of this mighty nation, and it is paralyzed 
forever! Soon the heart grows still, and the man of 
all eyes — for whose words thirty millions of people 
were waiting in hushed breath and with fondest 
hope — whose single mind held the secrets that 
nations were trembling to hear, and upon whose fiat 
the fortunes of agriculture and manufactures and 
commerce and even civil liberty seem to hang, — he 
from v/hose lips we were waiting to hear the potent 



232 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

spell of peace sound over the troubled waves of our 
stormy sea, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, lies dead, and powerless to speak to 
us for good or for ill — as though he had never been. 
He is dead and another ruleth in his stead. If there 
be any events in which Providence seems to chal- 
lenere the world to serious and awful consideration, 
surely this is one of them. For the last four years, 
who can have occupied so much of public attention 
as the man who, as President of the United States, 
stood forth, the representative of the mightiest mil- 
itary power on earth, in a storm of revolutionary 
conflict that seemed at times destined not only to 
drift the Christian world into war, but to engulf in 
irremediable ruin the very temple of our political 
liberty. And now, just as this long and anxious 
struggle seemed about to terminate, and we were look- 
ing for the answer of light and peace upon the face 
of this oracle of all the national wisdom in the cab- 
inet and victory in the field, to see it suddenly grow 
dark under the bloody hand of the assassin, and 
veiled forever in the night of a violent and untimely 
death, — the heads of nations must shudder under 
the shock of the awful disappointment, — and turn 
in their perplexity to God for wisdom and strength 
to read and bear the calamity of His providence 
aright. 

"Murder is a dark and damning crime, no matter 
upon what committed. If I maliciously or even 
wantonly take the life of the merest slavering idiot 
that barely vegetates in the light of life, I deserve 
to die for it; but to murder a people's President! — 
this is to stab the nation's heart, — to trample under 



EDITOR OF THE HARBINGER 233 

foot Hhe awe and majesty' wherewith God has 
clothed the 'temporal power,' and count the peo- 
ple's choice an unholy thing. The crime is not to 
be measured by human punishment. It outweighs 
the wrath of man. We can but vindicate the law 
and leave it to Him who hath said, 'Vengeance is 
mine; I will repay.' Yet we know that for such 
there is reserved the fire that is not quenched and 
the worm that never dies. 

"We are prone, under a great national blow like 
this, to ask why God permitted it, and are apt, per- 
haps, to venture too boldly to anticipate its destined 
effects in the future. But we do not allow ourselves 
to enter upon the field of political conjecture. Let 
us rather look into our own hearts and see in this 
terrible national affliction a solemn warning to hum- 
ble ourselves before the Great Ruler, and implore 
more fervently and truly his guidance and protec- 
tion. The Lord hath not smitten this people so 
heavily and thus in the moment of exulting hope, 
without reason. We need a purification before the 
land can be fully blest. Let us inquire wherein we 
have come short and sinned before our God, and 
with true repentance fall down in the dust before 
him, and he will surely lift upon us the light of his 
countenance and give us peace." 

The Ohio State Missionary Society held its four- 
teenth anniversary in May, at Ashland, and Pro- 
fessor Pendleton was present and delivered one of 
the principal addresses. Gould, Rowe, Myers, 
Parmley, Gilbert, Burgess, Green, Goodwin, Moffett, 
Hayden, Haley, Fillmore and Robison are some of 
the men he mentions. "J. H. Jones, of Cleveland," 



234 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

he tells us, "led off with one of his electric displays 
that threw a charm over the whole body." Benja- 
min Franklin, of the Review, he describes as 
"strong, earnest, practical and driving always at his 
purpose," and declares, "his address will be long 
and profitably remembered," R. M. Bishop was 
president, and R. R. Sloan corresponding secretary. 
The meeting was held in the Methodist house of 
worship, and people of all parties and no party re- 
ceived them with open arms. Mr. Pendleton closes 
his report with the words, "May the Lord bless all 
his people and hasten the day when they shall be 
united in the bonds of a true and scriptural fellow- 
ship." 

The address of Mr. Pendleton before this conven- 
tion is published in the Harbinger, and covers 
eighteen pages. It abounds in references to the 
great struggle and the needs of the churches grow- 
ing out of the war. Pastors and evangelists to carry 
on the work are a special necessity which he em- 
phasizes. He appeals to mothers to consecrate the 
Timothys, and a beautiful passage, with tender ref- 
erence to his own mother, will seem in place here. 

"O mothers, great is your mission among men! 
We never forget your early lessons.. They are our 
heart's heart. They come, like your yearning 
reminiscence of lost Eden's bloom, to throw their 
fragrance and their purity over the arid and pois- 
oned ways of our rugged life; they steal upon us in 
the hour of our temptations like gentle whisperings 
from the spirit land; they come to refresh us like 
the wells and palm trees of Elim when we are ready 
to perish in the desert; and when, on the stormy 



EDITOR OF THE HARBINGER 235" 

battle-field, death strikes us down with his red hand 
of blood, they are sweeter to us than the shout of 
victory and holy as the prayer in which they taught 
us to commit ourselves to the love and the mercy of 
God. O mother mine, from whose gentle eyes these 
have been shut out for now four dreary years by the 
lurid cloud of war, if through all its agonies thy 
firm but tender heart is yet unbroken, to thee let me 
render this tribute due to thy surpassing love, and 
lay at thy feet the graritude I owe for what, through 
the grace of God, I am enabled this day to do or 
say for the glory and honor of his name!" 

The twenty-fourth annual commencement of Beth- 
any College was held as usual on the fourth of July. 
There was a large audience and the exercises were 
interesting. Five young men were presented with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Jabez Hall, J. L. 
Pinkerton and W. C. Dawson were of this class. 
New trustees were added to the Board as follows: C. 
A. Buckbee, Ross Forward, Bateman Goe, James 
McGrew, Thomas W. Phillips, L. P. Streator, A. 
W. Campbell, Jr., Dr. R. Richardson, H. K. Rey- 
nolds, James Darsie, Z. F. Smith and John M. Lea. 
At this meeting it was decided to change the time 
of holding the commencement to the last Thursday 
in June. The faculty, as announced for the twen- 
ty-fifth session, consists of A. Campbell, President, 
W. K. Pendleton, Vice-President and Professor of 
Mental, Moral and Physical Philosophy and Belles- 
Lettres, Charies Louis Loos, Professor of Ancient 
Languages and Literature, B. W. Johnson, Professor 
of Mathematics and Astronomy, and Robert Mason, 
Professor of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and 



236 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Natural History. Albert Allen announces ttie sum 
of $62),442 subscribed toward the endowment of 
Bethany, $53,000 of which is from the Phillips 
Brothers, Newcastle, Pa. The deadly nimbus of 
war rolled back, and after four years of terrific strife 
men saw again the fair blue skies of peace. Posii 
nubiIa^J2ibila ; post nubila^ PhcBbus. 

Thus this beloved institution passed through the 
war period and kept its colors flying. How much 
this was due to the wisdom and prudence and heroic 
and self-sacrificing service of Mr. Pendleton can 
never be estimated. Mr. Campbell was in his de- 
cline. "During the continuance of the war," his 
biographer tells us, "he continued to act as presi- 
dent, and for a time meet as usual his morning class, 
as well as to deliver the annual baccalaureate ad- 
dress. As these duties, however, which he endeav- 
ored to fulfill from his strong desire to labor to the 
last, were evidently too great a burden at his ad- 
vanced age, he was induced at length to relinquish 
them to the vice-president, who, with the remaining 
members of the faculty, continued to preserve the 
order and conduct the business of the college, re- 
serving merely to the president the duty of confer- 
ring the degrees and preparing the address of the 
annual commencement. He still visited the college, 
and sometimes, through force of habit, would pre- 
pare to go over to deliver his morning lecture, until 
reminded that he had been relieved from duty." 
His work on the Harbinger also had .gradually 
closed. In January, 1865, he relinquished the 
editorship, and in November of the same year his 
last essay appears in the Journal, to which he had 



EDITOR OF THE HARBINGER 237 

so largely contributed for five and thirty consecutive 
years. Fitly enough, his theme is the gospel. 
After some remarks on preaching, he says: "We 
shall now propound or declare the seven facts which 
constitute the whole gospel. They are: i. The 
birth of Christ; God being his Father and the Vir- 
gin Mary his mother. 2. The life of Christ; as 
the oracle of God and the beau ideal of human per- 
fection. 3. The death of Christ; as a satisfactory 
sacrifice for the sin of the world. 4. The burial 
of Christ as a prisoner of the grave. 5. The resur- 
rection of Christ; 'Oh, grave, I will be thy destruc- 
tion.' 6. The ascension of Christ; 'He ascended 
far above all heavens that he might possess all 
things.' 7. The coronation of Christ as Lord of 
the universe; God, his Father, constituting him the 
absolute sovereign of all creation." 

Closing he declares: "The present material uni- 
verse yet unrevealed in all its area, in all its ten- 
antries, in all its riches, beauty and grandeur, will 
be wholly regenerated. Of this fact we have full 
assurance, since He that now sits upon the throne 
of the universe has pledged His word for it, saying, 
'Behold, I will create all things new!' — consequent- 
ly, new heavens, new earth — consequently, new ten- 
antries, new employments, new pleasures, new joys, 
new ecstasies. Theirs is a fullness of joy, a fullness 
of glory, a fullness of blessedness, of which no liv- 
ing man, however enlightened, however enlarged, 
however gifted, ever formed or entertained one ade- 
quate conception." These are Mr. Campbell's last 
words as a religious writer — the closing testimony of 
a hand which had penned sixty volumes. 



238 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Editor of the Harbinger and virtually head of the 
college, Mr. Pendleton's responsibilities and labors 
were indeed onerous. In the active ministry of the 
gospel also, and the advocacy of the great cause of 
missions, he was unremitting in diligence and devo- 
tion. The anniversary of the Missionary Society in 
Cincinnati found him present as usual, and he spends 
several weeks abroad in the interest of the college 
before this October meeting. The days of Recon- 
struction for the church and college were not less 
serious than for the nation. 




ALEXANDER CAMPBELL. 



CHAPTER XX 
PATER ET FILIUS 

Dr. Phii^ip Schaff, writing on the friendship of 
Calvin and Melanchthon, gives us this striking pas- 
sage: "When God has a great work to do in his 
kingdom, he trains and associates congenial agents 
of different gifts, but of one spirit and aim, to carry 
out his purposes. They supplement and encourage 
one another, and accomplish much more in unison 
than they could in isolation. Moses and Aaron, 
David and Jonathan in the history of Israel; Paul 
and Barnabas, Peter and Mark in apostolic times; 
Pamphilius and Eusebius, Basil and Gregory Nazi- 
anzen among the fathers; Luther and Melanch- 
thon, Zwingli, Occolampadius and Bullinger, Calvin, 
Farel, Viret and Beza, Cranmer, Latimer and Rid- 
ley among the reformers; the two Wesleys and 
Whitefield in the Methodist revival; Pusey, Newman 
and Keble in the Anglo-Catholic movement of our 
days, will readily occur to the memory as illustrious 
examples of co-operative friendship for the advance- 
ment of God's kingdom. Such friendships, based 
upon mutual respect and affection, cemented by the 
love of Christ, the Lord and Savior, and devoted to 
a holy cause, have left a deep impress upon the 
pages of history, and their memory is an inspiration 
to succeeding generations." 

In American church history, Campbell and Pen- 
dleton are two names that after the same manner 

239 



240 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

must be forever associated. Unlike those named by 
the great church historian, this friendship was never 
clouded by human infirmity. Paul and Barnabas 
fell out on the question of Mark, and Paul and Peter 
on the deeper question of Circumcision and the 
recognition of Gentile converts, and Luther and 
Melanchthon came near to a break on the subject of 
the Real Presence, but the relations of Campbell 
and Pendleton were never marred by a serious differ- 
ence on any subject. Mr. Campbell was just twent}^- 
nine years Mr. Pendleton's senior, and they lived 
and worked together as father and son in the great 
undertakings to whose common service they had 
been providentially called. Unlike in many re- 
spects, in nationality, in tastes, in culture, in dispo- 
sition, in methods of work, in views on minor points 
of docfrine and practice — they were one in a great, 
overmastering purpose, and each fitted harmoniously 
in the plan of the other's life. From the day that 
Bethany College was founded, Mr. Pendleton was 
the nearest personal friend and counselor of Mr. 
Campbell, a trusted as well as beloved son, on whom 
he leaned for support in everything. No other man 
among his associates in reform stood so close to the 
great leader. Many conspicuous figures tower about 
him — Scott, Burnet, Richardson, Rodgers, Allen, 
Hayden — but ranking them all is his gifted son-in- 
law. With the others he met in convention and 
occasional tours through the States; with Mr. Pen- 
dleton he was in constant touch in the Harbinger 
office, in the college, in the church and in the 
homes of Bethany. Together they arranged the 
matter for the monthly issue of the journal; together 



PATER ET FILIUS 241 

they shaped the policy of the institution; together 
they discussed the great questions constantly re- 
ferred to Bethany for solution; together they min- 
gled in the social intercourse of the faculty and vil-j 
lage life; together they worshiped and together' 
served. 

From the beginning almost, the entire manage-- 
ment and responsibility of the college devolved daily' 
upon Mr. Pendleton, in addition to his duties as in-' 
structor. Mr. Campbell was absorbed in other 
things. He was away from home much of the time. 
When at home, he was crowded with correspond- 
ence and other writing. His debates, his books, his 
labors in the pulpit and on the platform, the care of 
all the churches, made ceaseless demand upon his 
time, and while with Mr. Pendleton he exercised a 
general superintendency of the college, its practical 
workings were largely in the hands of his chief lieu- 
tenant. The same was true of the Harbinger. Al- 
though his name appears for the first time on the 
editorial staff in '46, from its beginning Mr. Pendle- 
ton shared in its management, wrote for it under an 
assumed name because he thought he was too young 
for his name to carry sufficient weight, read proof 
for Mr. Campbell, saved him labor in every way 
possible. He was Mr, Campbell's faithful adviser 
and helper. He stood next to him; he was to him 
in counsel what Melanchthon was to Luther; in ac- 
tion what Lafayette was to Washington. 

And he was fitted for this high service. He was 
a gifted scholar, broad and many-sided in his make- 
up. He had the philosophical temper. On ques- 
tions of law, language, theology, philosophy, art 

16 



242 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and science, history and government, ethics, archi- 
tecture, education, agriculture, church management, 
he was an authority. A strictly symmetrical man, 
and up to date he always was; a student familiar 
with the latest and best literature, with a discrimi- 
natins' taste and a clear vision. Well versed in 
belles-lettres literature, he was able to be of great 
service to Mr. Campbell. The latter knew Homer, 
Pollok's Course of Time, Young's Night Thoughts; 
he was steeped in Milton. It was grand music to 
hear his noble voice, his rich brogue — just enough 
of it — and the meaning he gave to what imagina- 
tion had made so thoroughly his own, as he recited 
long excerpts from Paradise Lost. The finest pas- 
sages in Greek and Roman, French and English lit- 
erature, both in poetry and prose, were committed 
to memory. His writings everywhere show the in- 
fluence of these authors, but with his vast labors and 
the special calls which claimed him incessantly, he 
could not keep so well abreast with current thought. 
Mr. Pendleton supplemented him here. He had 
been, for example, a disciple of Locke, but relaxed 
his hold upon that system in so far as he saw it 
would not bear him out in his own perception of 
truth. As a young Scot, born near the close of the 
eighteenth century, the philosophy of Locke re- 
ceived his unquestioned adherence, and he had little 
time to study metaphysics in the midst of the fierce 
combat for Scripture truth he was waging. In 
council with his son-in-law, Mr. Pendleton would 
take down books of the newer philosophers and read 
to him or talk with him of the ideas advanced in the 
newer schools; not that he assumed to teach him. 



PATER ET FILIUS 243 

but only in this imperceptible way he was seeking to 
attract to and set to work upon these ideas a great 
mind that would easily deal v/ith them for itself, but 
that was too lost in the crowding of other ques- 
tions to be likely to come across them, and yet that 
might, sooner or later, be at a disadvantage without 
them. 

His gifts as a linguist were equally helpful. He 
read Latin as he read English, and wrote it, too, 
with ease; and at a time when Greek texts were 
fiercely contested by the best scholars, he was in the 
front. In logic, which he taught so many years, in 
all its methods and in all its tricks and turns, he 
was thoroughly at home. Political economy and all 
the schools of mental and moral philosophy, were as 
familiar to him as A, B, C. On these lines of 
thought Mr. Campbell relied upon him, and even in 
matters of every-day business, trusted to his judg- 
ment. Their friendship was close and cordial. Mr. 
Campbell was a father to him, and he a devoted son 
in the most comprehensive sense of the word; a 
right arm, a staff on which the reformer leaned; and 
the son sunk his personal ambitions in every way 
whenever they would have led him into any path in 
which he would not have been walking side by side 
with Mr. Campbell in the great work to which he 
was consecrated. With what reverence does he ever 
regard him! With what affection does he ever 
cherish him! 

March 4th, '66, fifteen minutes before midnight, 
and just at the close of the first Lord's day of the 
month, Mr. Campbell entered into his well-earned 
rest. In the Harbinger for that year Mr. Pendleton 



244 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

has a noble eulogy on this eminent man and his 
great services to the cause of righteousness and 
truth. After sketching his wonderful career from 
childhood through nearly fourscore years, he gives a 
touching account of his westering days and the 
sunset. 

"'He was the most persistent man in the religious 
instruction of his family that I ever knew. Morning 
and evening worship were as regular as the daily 
meals. Never in any family were the Scriptures 
more copiously recited by the children, or elabo- 
rately explained by the parent. No matter what 
had been the fatigue and labors of the day, he 
always found strength and time enough for this car- 
dinal feature in his household economy. He had 
but little confidence in a piety that was not nour- 
ished and instructed by the daily study of the Word 
of God and a perpetual habit of prayer. So he 
taught and thus he practiced. How did it fit him 
to die? 

"His last days were as the effulgence of the sun, 
when it sinks gloriously through gorgeous drapery 
of rifted cloud. He went to his rest through fitful 
gleamings of a sublime intellect, but with a faith 
that never faltered. He suffered as the strong only 
can suffer. His iron frame gradually gave way. He 
seemed conscious that the convulsive grasp of death 
was upon it — that the long empire of his imperious 
will was invaded, and he would struggle at times 
with the energy of an unconquered giant to shake it 
off. We watched him as we never watched the 
dying before, and it seemed that the idea of immor- 
tality was struggling with the agonies of death. 



. PATER ET FILIUS 245 

Relaxing from the struggle of physical pain, a 
placid smile would play over his countenance, and 
then he would murmur as if in soliloquy: 'I will 
ransom them from the hand of the grave; I will re- 
deem them from death. O death, I will be thy 
plague. O grave, I will be thy destruction; repent- 
ance shall be hid far from mine eyes.' He would 
frequently exclaim, 'What shall I do, what shall I 
do! Whither shall I fly but to Thee?' The soul 
was struggling with the clay tenement and panting 
to be free, but refusing to die. The Scriptures 
proved his unfailing consolation. He quoted them 
with great point when he seemed to know or notice 
but little else. A few days before his death, upon 
some allusion to the creation, he quoted the first 
verse of the first chapter of Genesis in Hebrew, and 
then the first verse of the first chapter of John in 
the Greek. His mind delighted to dwell upon the 
glorious character of Christ. He would look around 
upon the friends about his bedside and ask, 'What 
think ye of Christ — his divine nature, his glorious 
mission, his kingly office — the Sovereign Ruler of 
the heavens and of the earth, the Fountain of uni- 
versal being!' Rousing up from apparent reverie 
he would say, 'God speaking to man, and man 
speaking in response to God. Praise to his name!' 
At times the idea of going home would take pos- 
session of his mind, and he would give orders for 
starting. Again he would say, 'It seems a great 
distance, but it is very short — but a step from the 
cradle to the grave, from earth to heaven, from time 
to eternity. A few days to lie in the earth, and 
then — the glorious resurrection.' 



246 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

"And tlieii he would break out with sublime quo- 
tations descriptive of the future life. 'Eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man the things which God has prepared for 
them that love him.' 'Everlasting life — endless 
duration — the — ' 

" 'When I've been there ten thousand years, 
Bright shining as the sun, 
I've no less days to sing his praise 
Than when I first begun.' 

"The sublime words of the Psalms were con- 
stantly in his mind, and he quoted with remarkable 
accuracy and propriety from the old metrical version 
of the Scotch Psalmody which he memorized in his 
youth, such as spoke the comfort he needed or the 
praise he felt. 

"Through all his weakness and suffering, his 
politeness and gratitude were among the most con- 
spicuous expressions of his heart. He was thankful 
for the courtesies of his friends, anxious lest they 
would not be properly attended to and cared for, and 
grateful for the slightest office of kindness. Some- 
times the room would be nearly filled with visitors 
and he would think they had assembled to hear him 
preach, and ask if it was not time to begin the serv- 
ices, and, when reminded that they were only 
friends calling to see him, he would request some 
one to thank them for him, and then turning to 
those nearest, he would quote: 

" 'Society, friendship and love, 
Divinely bestowed upon man; 
O, had I the wings of a dove, 
How soon would I join ye again. 
" 'My sorrows ' 



PATER ET FILIUS 247 

And his voice would fail him, and with a graceful 
wave of his hand, he would close his eyes and re- 
lapse into silence. 

"One of the remarkable qualities of his mind was 
its great power of relative suggestion. It was quick 
to the last; sometimes playing upon words, but 
always with a deep meaning in his thought. We 
were urging him to take some nourishment. He 
drank a draught of it, and paused for breath. We 
asked him if it was not palatable. He replied, 'Yes, 
and I presume wholesome. But,' said he, turning 
his face with its familiar smile of humor full upon 
us, 'the whole need not a physician.' Four days 
before his death, the weather was sunny and pleas- 
ant. I called his attention to the fact, and remarked 
that it v/as \}i^ fiTst day of March. 'Yes,' said he, 
'comes in like a lamb, goes out like a lion.' A day 
or two before, the sun was pouring its setting beams 
in through the window opposite the foot of his bed. 
His eye rested inquiringly upon the quiet glory, and 
he was told it was the setting sun. 'Yes,' he re- 
peated, 'the setting sun! It will soon go dov^n. 
But unto them that fear His name, shall the sun of 
righteousness arise with healing in his wings!' But 
time would fail us to cite the many memorable 
death-bed sayings of this great and noble man of 
God. His thoughts were all of God, of Christ and 
of heaven. Literally did he 

" 'Speak the honors of his name 
"With his last laboring breath, 
And, dying, triumphed in the Cross, 
The antidote of death . ' 

"When his voice had almost entirely left him, 



24-8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and he was struggling for breath, his wife said to 
him, 'The blessed Savior will go with you through 
the valley of the shadow of death.' He looked 
earnestly into her face for a moment, and then, with 
a great effort, said emphatically, 'That He will! that 
He will!' And this was about the last intelligent 
and pointed expression of his deathless confidence 
that we can now recall. 

"Sunday, the 4th of March, we had been with 
him nearly all day. Night came on, and it became 
manifest that with it was also the coming for him of 
the night of death. It drew towards midnight; we 
stood beside him, his hand in ours, noting the 
beating of his pulse. We felt it going and said to 
a patient female watcher, 'If it revive not, he must 
soon be gone.' She glided away to wake the doc- 
tor. The pulse quivered and stopped — a sudden and 
convulsive drawing back of the breath startled us — 
and in a few moments the voice of lamentation rose 
over the lifeless form of him whom distant genera- 
tions will rank among the greatest of the many God- 
given that have blessed our earth." 

The tender relation between these two men is 
very beautiful. Like the friendship between 
Achilles and Patroclus, like the historic instances of 
Burke and Dr. Johnston, Goethe and Schiller, or 
Maurice and Kingsley, it is an attractive page in 
the story of humanity. Each had his elements of 
strength; each his limitations. Whatever may be 
the estimate placed upon their attainments as com- 
pared one with the other, it must appear that they 
were providentially associated in a common service. 
There is one book Mr. Pendleton should have writ- 



PATER ET FILIUS 249 

ten. Without it the world is poorer. He should 
have left us his Personal Recollections of Alexander 
Campbell. 

The month after Mr. Campbell's death, April 
24-27, occurred the celebrated conference in Rich- 
mond, Va., between the Baptists and the Disciples, 
in which Mr. Pendleton was a prominent actor. It 
was a meeting of great importance. Dr. William 
A. Broadus and James W. Goss were the prime 
movers in it. As it was not a representative body, 
but a voluntary assemblage for purposes of confer- 
ence as to the propriety of recommending union 
between these closely allied Christian households, it 
sat wnth closed doors, and its minutes were never 
published. Dr. Broadus presided, and the delibera- 
tions lasted for four days. An address to the 
churches was afterward given out, signed by Broadus 
and Goss, stating the purposes of the meeting, the 
Christian courtesy and brotherly kindness which 
characterized the sessions, and how the conclusion 
had been reached, deliberately but reluctantly, that 
the time had not yet come ' ' when the Baptists and the 
Disciples v^^ere on both sides prepared, with the pros- 
pect of perfect harmony, to commit themselves to any 
degree of co-operation beyond such courtesies and 
personal Christian kindnesses as members of 
churches of different denominations may individual- 
ly choose to engage in." Mr. Pendleton's account 
of this conference and his description of the Baptist 
leaders, Broadus, Jeter, Burrows, etc., furnished an 
interesting contribution to history. 

'^We regard it as a high honor to have been one of 
the thirty-two members who constituted this conven- 



250 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tion. It was certainly a great pleasure also to sHare 
in its high-toned Christian courtesies and frank and 
unreserved interchange of sentiments on the great 
themes which were considered. We shall never for- 
get, nor, we trust, fail to reciprocate, the kindly 
bearing of the good men who, on the Baptist side, 
souofht with us to effect a union between the two re- 
ligious organizations of Baptists and Disciples. 
These Christian ministers are my brethren in the 
Lord by right of a common adoption, and as I hope 
to stand v^ith them at last approved and accepted by 
the Father, so I arn unvv^illing to look upon them as 
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel while here 
on the earth. They will suffer me, I am sure, and 
my brethren with me in the convention, to hold 
them in our fellowship of labor and love in the king- 
dom of Christ, and, however much we may yet differ 
on some points, deem them as neither a bar to our 
union with Christ, nor essentially, if ecclesiastically, 
with one another. They are my brethren, even 
should some of them not be able to discern the re- 
lationship. May the Father who knoweth his chil- 
dren, make us also to know and acknowledge one 
another. 

"For one, we were not surprised at the degree of 
harmony which was developed by these comparisons 
of views. We knew full well before we met that on 
all that ought to be demanded for Christian fellow- 
ship, we, and a great part of the Baptist denomina- 
tion — that portion of it which was more largely rep- 
resented in this body—were substantially at one. I 
knew that we agreed on the inspiration of the 
Scriptures; on the divinity, unity and personality of 



PATER ET FILIUS 251 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit; on the sacrificial work 
of Christ; generally, on the fall and depravity of 
man; on faith; on repentance; on immersion; on 
the necessity, reality and cause of regeneration, jus- 
tification and sanctification; on the membership and 
organization of the church; on the duty of mission- 
ary work; on the sacred obligation of the Lord's 
day; on the resurrection and the future judgment. 
These items of themselves constitute mighty reasons 
why we should be one, I should tremble before 
God if I felt myself responsible, under such circum- 
stances, for the perpetuation of a hostile and pro- 
scriptive spirit of non-fellowship between two peo- 
ple who hold so much in common. 

"There are differences — differences which, I am free 
to say, while they should not bar fellowship, ought, 
nevertheless, not to be compromised, because they 
are conscientiously held by members of both bodies 
and deemed by them respectively as important to 
the successful proclamation of the truth. What is 
my liberty in these respects, should be my brother's 
toleration. If he will not allow me to see what he 
does not see, and to attempt, in Christian love, to 
show it to him, and if I exercise a similar proscrip- 
tion towards him, then neither of us can ever learn 
anything in the divine science or make any progress 
in the heavenly life. There is a bar to all improve- 
ment and growth in knowledge. The free and dis- 
cursive mind must turn from the inviting field of 
divine truth and seek its pleasures and its discover- 
ies in other departments of knowledge. The bound- 
less ocean of revelation has a hitherto, set by some 
narrow and bigoted creed-maker, perhaps, and be- 



252 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

yond it the ever restless waves of its mighty depths 
must not go. Betv/een us and the Baptists these dif- 
ferences may, it seems, be narrowed down to ques- 
tions about regeneration, justification, sanctification 
and the design of baptism. On these subjects, 
doubtless, we do differ, but then neither of the 
bodies denies the substance of these articles. No 
intelligent Disciple believes in any Christian life or 
state that does not include them all, and though we 
have different ways of explaining the how and the 
when, we are nevertheless agreed in demanding 
alike the change and the obedience. The Baptists 
themselves believe in regeneration: so do we. The 
Baptists rest in a divine justification through faith in 
the blood of Christ: so do we. The Baptists con- 
tend for a state of sanctification into which the sin- 
ner is brought, and wherein he is progressively ad- 
vanced: so do we. And the Baptists demand of the 
penitent believer immersion in water before they 
will admit him into the fellowship of the Church: 
and so do we. Agreeing then in the essence, why 
should we be divided because we cannot at once see 
the divine teachings alike, as to the significance and 
place of all these things in the divine mind? Those 
of us who propose a union, alike claim that we have 
attained to these blessings. We both have confi- 
dence that we are regenerated, justified and sancti- 
fied, and have been alike immersed into Christ; and 
yet we must not recognize one another as Christians 
by the simple act of eating together the emblems of 
the Savior's death! We cannot believe that the 
Lord will suffer this state of things long to continue 
between those that love His name more than the 



PATER ET FILIUS 253 

name of a party, and respect His earnest prayer for 
the unity of His people more than their own specu- 
lations concerning things which are confessedly hard 
to be understood." 

The editorial contributions to the Harbinger this 
year are upon many themes : ' ' Parable of the Tares , ' ' 
"Sectarian Prejudice," "Revelation," "Endowment 
of Bethany College," "A Proposition of Union," 
"The Promise of Miracles," "Election of Elders," 
"The Church of the New Testament," "Testament- 
ary Benevolence," and a warm-hearted appeal for 
help for "Our Cause in the South." 

Bethany holds its annual commencement in June. 
There are thirteen graduates, and speeches are de- 
livered in I,atin, Hebrew, French and English. 
Prominent among those attending the convention 
are three Baptist ministers, Wyckoff and Buckbee, 
of New York, and Dickinson, of Pittsburg, and 
these dwelt on the question of union between the 
Baptists and Disciples. James A. Garfield and Con- 
stant Lake, of Ohio, and H. A. Gleaves, of Ten- 
nessee, are added to the Board of Visitors. The 
alumni up to this date are 331, of which 15 are 
physicians, 34 teachers, 35 lawyers, 50 planters and 
farmers, and 118 ministers, and of the latter 38 are 
engaged in educational work, two presidents of col- 
leges, 13 professors and 15 principals of seminaries 
of learning. D. S. Burnet attends the commence- 
ment, delivers a memorial address on A. Campbell, 
and holds a meeting at Bethany with 30 converts. 

Mr. Pendleton's missionary labors this year are 
abundant. With Mrs. Pendleton, who always ac- 
companied him on such occasions, he attended the 



254 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Indiana State Missionary Convention at Indianap- 
olis, and writes of Burgess, Jamison, Goodwin, Pink- 
erton, Henderson, Krrett, New and Benton. He 
speaks before the convention and to the students of 
the university, and preaches on the Lord's day. 
His comments on some of the speakers are striking. 
Pinkerton speaks "in the spirit of the old prophets." 
Henderson "fascinates his audience by his exuberant 
electricity. His power is in his presence. It goes 
out from him like an aura. He holds one as a mag- 
net holds a needle." For his brethren Mr. Pendle- 
ton always has generous words. 

He attended the eighteenth anniversary of the 
A. C. M. S., and delivered the annual address — a 
splendid contribution to missionary literature, which 
is published in full in the Harbinger. He said, in 
closing: "We want more unity. Congregationalism 
does not express the unity of the Church. Congre- 
gationalism does not comprehend the full idea of the 
Church, and cannot in its isolated action accomplish 
the full mission of the Church. Congregationalism 
does not reveal to the heart the grand and glorious 
nature and power of the Church universal. It must 
go forth from its isolation into the wide fellowship 
of national reunion; it must come out from the syna- 
gogue and go up to the temple; it must leave the 
cantons and join the procession that is majestically 
sweeping by for the city of the King. Congrega- 
tionalism all over the land is like the sweet, fresh 
fountains that spring forth from rock and crevice, 
and spot the earth with verdure and beauty, but the 
fountains well up and flow over and murmur for the 
sea. They run for a little while alone and adorn 



PATER ET FILIUS 255 

with happy life, and sweeten with more than angelic 
music, the humble valleys through which they pass, 
but soon, as if moved by some divine instinct or 
sympathy of attraction, they begin to flow together 
— first a rill, then a rivulet, anon a river — swollen 
into glorious unity, and surging with majestic swell 
to the call of the eternal ocean. The rill is spark- 
ling and bright, the rivulet fresh and strong, but the 
river is the voice of many waters, the harmony of 
many tones, the strength of many torrents, all gath- 
ering and concentrating a.nd moving to swell the 
music and the might of the shoreless sea. It is 
meetings like these that give us this mighty sense 
of our unity, and inspire us with the true grandeur 
of our mission as the Church of the living God. It 
is here that we are made to feel that we are mem- 
bers of the congregation, the innumerable congrega- 
tion, of the first-born, whose names are enrolled in 
heaven. I^et us swell the gatherings, then, from 
year to year, put our hearts closer and closer to the 
great heart of the Church universal, and bring them 
to beat more and more in unison with the will and 
the Word of the King eternal, immortal and invisi- 
ble, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever." 



CHAPTER XXI 
PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLIvEGE 

At a meeting of tlie Trustees, June i8, 1866, on 
motion of Dr. J. B. Robison, seconded by P. S. Fall, 
Prof. W. K. Pendleton was unanimously elected 
President of Bethany College. In bis announcement 
of tbe 26th session, his first announcement as Presi- 
dent of the institution, he says: "We are gratified 
to state that the chair of Physical Science will be 
occupied by Dr. J. T. Barclay, so long our mission- 
ary to Jerusalem; Dr. Richardson will labor with us 
as lecturer in the Biblical Institute; Prof. C. L. Loos 
continues at the head of the School of Languages, 
and all the other schools will be ably and efficiently 
conducted." This is the beginning of a long and 
honored service as the head of the institution with 
which he had been so closely connected already for 
a quarter of a century. 

With the opening of the new year Mr. Pendleton 
announces that, in harmony with the plan of Bibli- 
cal instruction proposed in Bethany College, a course 
of free lectures for ministers will be inaugurated. 
They are to be popular in style and arranged to 
cover all the most practical wants of the preacher: 
Sacred History, Biblical Literature, Church History, 
Christology and Homiletics. The course will extend 
through two months, and embrace two hundred lec- 
tures, with regular practical training in the art of 
preparing and delivering sermons. More specific- 

256 



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PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE 257 

ally, the subjects treated will be: The People of God 
and Their Land; The Book of God, its Origin, His- 
tory and Interpretation; The Christ, His Divinity, 
Humanity, Life, Sacrifice, Resurrection, Doctrine, 
Government and Second Coming; The Church, its 
Origin, Growth, Conflicts, Corruptions, Reforma- 
tion, Missionary Spirit and Ultimate Destiny; The 
Preacher, his Work and Duty in reference to all 
these- — what he must do and how he must do it. It 
is to be a free-will offering of the faculty of Bethany 
College for promoting the efficiency of the ministry. 
Dr. R. Richardson, Dr. J. T. Barclay, Prof. C. L. 
Loos and Y^. K. Pendleton are announced as the 
regular and responsible lecturers in this course, and 
partial assurance of aid from Isaac Errett and P. S. 
Fall as lecturers on special topics. 

The 26th session, the first of Mr. Pendleton's 
presidency, is in every way a prosperous one. For 
studiousness and general good behavior the students 
are specially commended. Financially, the institu- 
tion was rising in prosperity. Every year was add- 
ing to the endowment fund. Means was yet wanted 
to complete the building, but this was coming in 
with encouraging promptness and liberality. The 
closing scenes of the session were unusually interest- 
ing and profitable. Eight young men received the 
graduating honors, among them H. McDiarmid, 
who afterward became President of the college. 
There were eighty students in attendance during the 
session. Among the visitors at the commencement 
were R. M. Bishop, J. A. Garfield, James Darsie, 
Joseph King, J. P. Robison, J. H. Jones, Wesley 
Lanphear, D. R. Gans, Constant Lake and a host of 
17 



258 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

others. John F. Rowe was alumni lecturer, and 
represents the alumni dinner as "bordering much on 
the gastronomic; the literary performances opening 
and closing with a serious Rowe^ the poet being 
Non esty and the orator in swampiiin up stuTnpuin.'''' 
The Trustees passed unanimously a resolution that 
the sons of preachers of all Protestant denominations 
should be educated at Bethany College free of all 
cost of tuition. From the beginning the college 
offered its advantages gratuitously to young men 
preparing for the ministry, and it annually educated, 
on the average, one-fourth of its students free of 
tuition, and never turned away a worthy young man 
under any circumstances because he could not pay 
his tuition. The faculty, as announced for the 27th 
session, includes H. W. Harding, Professor of Math- 
ematics and Astronomy, and B. T. Jones, Tutor. 

President Pendleton spends the summer vacation 
in Virginia. The country still shows the ravages of 
war. He passes Bull Run and other battlefields. 
For many miles the land is yet a waste; fences are 
gone, houses are gone, people are gone, fields grow- 
ing up in underbrush, the clay about the great en- 
campments and bloody battlefields is still seen, and 
long lines of fortifications streak the green fields 
with their ridges; at intervals the remains of 
blockhouses, stockades, breastworks and other bar- 
riers to bullets. He went to Cuckoo to attend a 
funeral service in honor of his mother. The dis- 
course was preached by James W. Goss. "I did not 
see her die," he writes. "Her last blessing to me 
was while she was yet the venerable, living mother 
in Israel, white with her near eighty winters, but 



PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE 259 

still in the full ripeness of piety and faith. She did 
not think we would meet again on earth, and look- 
ing back upon that moment, I seem to see her stand- 
ing upon the threshold of her new life, bidding me 
adieu until I should join her in the better land. 
There was the tear of parting and hope of meeting 
— the dew of earth and the sunshine of heaven, the 
cloud and the bow — and thus I left her to see her no 
more on earth. My mind does not think of her as 
in the grave; but as I saw her there upon the thresh- 
old of the new life, so now I follow her within the 
gates, and think of her as with others who have left 
us and who are awaiting our coming beyond the 
river, and so I sorrow not as those who are without 
hope. Heaven is brought nearer to us as it is filled 
with so many that we love." 

While in Virginia Mr. Pendleton visited Mr. Goss 
at Piedmont. Then he attends a meeting at Mace- 
donia, Orange County, where he meets Dr. W. H. 
Hopson. From Orange he goes to Richmond to fill 
Dr. Hopson's pulpit, and while there is the guest of 
W. J. Pettigrew, and meets his old friend and schol- 
arly brother, John B. Cary, then a commission mer- 
chant of the city. He mentions Spence, Fife, 
Magruder and others. He writes of the sorrow in 
so many homes; the sad stories that hang "like 
funeral badges about the knockers of many a door." 
Mr. Pettigrew's home is situated just outside the first 
line of fortifications across the famous Williamsburg 
turnpike, and a little beyond he sees in the distance 
the gleam of the busy spades of the burial corps 
consigning to honored graves the remains of the 
thousands who fell upon the many battlefields around 



26o LIFE OF W. K. PE-NDLETON 

Richmond. The government is gathering them into 
the National Cemetery. He describes Hollywood 
and Oakwood, where 14,000 men sleep their last 
sleep. Richmond does not seem to him as it once 
did. A sort of lethargy appeared to hang about it. 
There was not the same air of gay and bouyant life. 
People were not so much in the streets, and the 
stream of joyous life had retired from the public 
places. Men looked thoughtful, women veiled and 
sad. There is a deep and abiding discontent among 
the people. The substitution of "The First Mili- 
tary District" for old Virginia tells the story. 

From Richmond Mr. Pendleton goes to Louisa C. 
H., and joins Dr. Hopson in another protracted 
meeting. He describes the Doctor as supremely 
gifted as a preacher. His manner and style and 
method and matter are all his own. He is lucid as 
a sunbeam, and no one with common intelligence 
can fail to understand him. He is not only the un- 
rivaled favorite with the people, but is universally 
respected and beloved by the preachers, because, 
with a manly frankness that knows no disguises, he 
is the soul of honor and model of courtesy in all his 
relations to his co-laborers in the ministry of the 
Word. 

Here he meets ly. A. Cutler also, "a graduate of 
Bethany, and one of the most effective preachers in 
the state; full of zeal, and of a most exemplary 
piety, held everywhere in high esteem and affection- 
ate regard, both by the Church and the world." He 
goes to Salem to another meeting. He meets T. A. 
Crenshaw and R. L. Coleman also. He says the 
negroes still meet in the churches with the whites. 



PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE 261 

At some of the meetings their attendance was fully 
as large as in former times, but there is manifestly a 
orowinof distance between the two races which he 
regrets to see. It is a new problem in politics 
whether they can live together equally free, and yet 
socially and politically isolated and antagonistic, 
without animosities and collisions which will ulti- 
mately ripen into violence and civil tumult. He 
expresses all confidence in the strong practical sense 
and wise patriotism of the American people, and an 
abiding faith in the good purposes of God toward 
this favored land and all her people. 

Another tour in the interest of the college is 
through Pennsylvania. A district meeting is at- 
tended at Lock Haven. With N. J. Mitchell, 
James Darsie, L. B. Hyatt, R. H. Johnson and 
many others, he enjoys rich fellowship. He is en- 
tertained by A. H. Best, one of the pillars of the 
Church, with whom he finds "a happy resting 
place." From Lock Haven he goes to Newcastle, 
and is with John, Thomas and Charles Phillips. 
He preaches in the Baptist Church and is much 
pleased with the fraternal bearing of the pastor, 
William Cowden. A good old sister is somewhat 
painfully shocked by his "Campbellism," but he 
hopes the pastor will reconcile her to the truth and 
show her the way of the Lord more perfectly. Mr. 
Cowden afterward himself found this so-called 
"Campbellism" a very acceptable gospel. 

Mr. Pendleton, in addition to his correspondence, 
discusses in the Harbinger this year Repentance, 
Baptism and Forgiveness, Missionary Societies, 



262 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Dijfficulties in Discipline, Born of Water, Visions 
and Experimental Religion, etc. 

An incident of this first year of his presidency is 
the burning of the steward's inn. On the morning 
of the 13th of December, it was wholly destroyed by 
fire. No one was injured and private property was 
all saved. "We had $10,000 insurance," says Mr. 
Pendleton, "and the inconvenience can soon be 
remedied." 

The 27th session of Bethany opened in September, 
1868, with a larger attendance of students than 
at any time since before the Civil War. "As a 
class," says the president; "they have never been 
surpassed for morality, intellectual development and 
devotion to study. More than one-third of them are 
expecting to engage in the public labors of the 
Church, and three-fourths of them are consistent 
members of the Church. The students are in the 
finest heart. We have never known so much inter- 
est taken in the societies. The Neotrophian and 
A. L. Institute, the two literary societies, are of 
about equal numbers, and whilst the most stirring 
emulation exists between them, there is a high and 
honorable bearing from each to the other, and the 
most cordial reciprocity of all proper and becoming 
courtesies. Their meetings are conducted with a 
dignity and strictness of parliamentary order that 
would be no unprofitable example to the grave and 
reverend seigniors who constitute our national and 
state legislatures. Their exercises are of the most 
improving kind. The students here learn to be pro- 
ducers. The highest end of intellectual education 
is to develop the thinking and artistic power; the 



PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE 263 

supreme object in moral education is to exalt the 
conscience under tlie light of divine law into the 
regulative power of all greatness. These high aims 
cannot be reached by simply explaining the pro- 
cesses or stating the rules. Practice is the necessary 
trainer, and nothing in common with the college so 
meets this need as well conducted societies for read- 
ing, exercises in original composition, declamations 
and debates. 

"The Adelphian Society is also largely attended, 
and with the happiest results. This is the society 
for the young preachers, though it often has pious 
young men in its membership who are not, as yet, 
determined on the gospel ministry. It is an admir- 
able school for the training which young preachers 
need, and promises to turn out from its present class 
some able and eloquent proclaimers of the gospel." 

He makes a plea for more preachers. "Will not 
the friends of Bethany consider her great work as an 
educator in the past, and send us an increase of ma- 
terial to prepare for still greater usefulness? The 
Church is growing faster than the ministry. Let us 
be wise and provide for the wants of the congrega- 
tions in time. The message of God should be de- 
livered by responsible messengers. Even in apos- 
tolic times the greatest preacher was a chosen 
scholar. Fitness to preach and success in preaching 
did not depend upon simple inspiration. Among 
the original apostles, Peter only was eminent. Only 
a few were writers. Barnabas and Silas and Philip 
and Apollos were not of the twelve, and yet they 
stand out upon the page of inspiration as chosen 
orators for the Cross. Natural gifts and acquired 



264 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

fitness were looked to by the great Head of the 
Church. When a man was to be chosen to carry the 
truth to the Gentiles, Paul was selected, — a man of 
exquisite culture,— brought up at the feet of Gama- 
liel, that he might be qualified to dispute with the 
Jews, and a citizen of Tarsus, born free, and read in 
Greek literature, that he might argue with philoso- 
phers, and enchain with his eloquence the courts of 
emperors and the judges of the Areopagus. He did 
not use words of mati'^s wisdom^ but still, they were 
words of wisdom, — God's wisdom, — and wisely used. 
As a writer, too, Paul and John and Peter are the 
mighty men, — Paul mightiest of them all. 
'Things hard to be understood,' he had to write 
about; and look at his eloquence, his logic, his dia- 
lectics! Study his style — perspicuity, energy, ele- 
gance, — all the grand essentials of a great and ac- 
complished writer shine and burn and glitter 
through his immortal sentences. He bears you on 
like a mighty river, — deep, yet pellucid to its bot- 
tom, — resistless in its strength and beautiful in 
every turn and ripple of its current. 

"We want such men now. We want them in our 
pulpits, and in our printing offices — or the places 
that lie back of the printing offices, where our 
literature is born. When the great spirit of Alexan- 
der Campbell was among us, he was learning and 
logic enough for most men. The echo of his great 
blows is still coming and going in many a little de- 
bate of pioneer polemics. What infinite dishes of 
hash have been chopped up and stewed out of them! 
How many a male Minerva has sprung forth full 
armed from his Jovian brain! From Great Britain 



PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE 265 

to all the other isles and all over the civilized part of 
our own great continent, one who knows the ring of 
his battle axe and the metal of his armor can recog- 
nize them, pigmies likely enough in themselves, 
but still with Saul's armor on, and thus, and there- 
fore too, head and shoulders above other men! But 
this cannot last. The day of the great man is over, 
and the monument that should rise over the tomb of 
his learning and eloquence is an army of preachers, 
educated as he was to carry on the great work 
which the Lord began by his hands. 

"Bethany College was founded by Alexander 
Campbell for this high purpose, — -and we rejoice to 
record that it is fulfilling its high design nobly." 

The commencement, June 16, was never more 
largely attended, and the president reported an 
increase of students over the previous session of over 
fifty per cent. The college was recovering rapidly 
from its setback of the war, and promised to far sur- 
pass in point of patronage its best days. Sixteen 
were honored v/ith the degree of A. B. Among 
them were B. L. Coleman, George Darsie, B. T. 
Jones, George T. Oliver and W. H. Schell. An- 
nouncement is made by Mr. Pendleton of a thorough 
course in Practical Chemistry under the instruction 
of Prof. A, E. Dolbear, late laboratory instructor in 
Michigan University; the course to embrace Quali- 
tative Analysis and Determinative Mineralogy. 

Mr. Pendleton's pen is very busy this year. He 
contributes articles for the Harbinger on Confession 
unto Salvation, Visions and Experimental Religion, 
Strife and Division, Faith, The Duty of Baptism, 
Secret Societies, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, 



266 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Unto Remission of Sins, Principle or Expediency, 
and other themes. The Christian Quarterly is pro- 
jected, and he accepts the position of associate edi- 
tor on that magazine. In this additional labor he 
engages with reluctance, chiefly because he already 
thinks he has more to do than he can find time to 
do well. 

His labors in the cause of missions are unremit- 
ting. The fight against organized missionary work 
had been a hot one, and by voice and pen he plead 
with his brethren to support this holy cause. "We 
have done all that we could," he declares, "to in- 
duce a better state of feeling and a more general 
contribution to the work. The zeal of many who 
have so long stood up for the society is to a consid- 
erable degree abating. They have retired before the 
waves of opposition, and have scarce faith enough 
left to incite them to a renewed effort. This is the 
general result of disappointed enthusiasm. Many 
thought that all Disciples would unite in the heaven- 
ordained work of missions — they could see nothing 
more plainly than the duty to preach the Gospel to 
every creature; they expected hearty, generous and 
universal co-operation; but they found that some, 
deemed wise and good, looked with hard eyes upon 
the noble enterprise; they frowned at it as a thing of 
strange birth, an exotic in the garden of the Lord, 
a plant of upas-shadow, beneath which apostolic 
Christianity might grow sick and perish, and nat- 
urally enough the love of peace, unwillingness to go 
on in a general work with a divided brotherhood, 
and the sense of inability to do by part what de- 
manded the co-operation and the strength of all — 



PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE 267 

these and other causes induced some of the most 
zealous and hopeful to feel like withdrawing from 
the work altogether and leaving it to the tender 
mercies of those who sought its death. 

"But we think there are cheering evidences of a 
generous reaction. Perhaps much of the power that 
rose up against us was spurious — the fungus growth 
of a malarious atmosphere that the returning breath 
of peace has blown away. Strange fire upon the 
altar will sour the incense of the offering. Missions 
are born of love and flourish only through faith and 
hope. These are mighty powers, and while they 
abide there need be no despair. Men of God, wait- 
ing and watching, see the returning tide and rise up 
to meet it at its flow. We have never had such a 
missionary meeting as that of October last. More 
than five hundred delegates were enrolled. Our 
noblest men — not all, by any means, but very many — 
were there. Men of different views, almost antago- 
nistic views, came up with one heart and went away 
with one mind. They all wanted the Gospel pro- 
claimed to the whole world; in this they were of one 
heart and for this they were willing to sacrifice dif- 
ferences of opinion, and so they became also of one 
mind. 

"Brethren everywhere, one and all, we lay before 
you the wisdom and the charity of wise heads and 
great hearts. Will you accept it? We beseech you 
by your love for the cause, by your sense of duty to 
the Author of the Great Commission, by your re- 
spect for the general judgment of a great representa- 
tive convention, by your love of harmony, by your 
own prayers for the conversion of the world, rise up 



268 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

to the help of the Lord, and pour your contributions 
into the treasury of the Church for this too long neg- 
lected work of missions." 

One of the most striking elements of this man's 
character is his noble, unfailing optimism: a serene 
faith, an unshaken courage, an abiding hopefulness, 
which is of infinite value to the Church in times of 
grave emergency. There is never a note of discour- 
agement in the darkest hour. His spirit is that of 
Cromwell's Ironsides, whose watchword was, "The 
Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our 
refuge." "Saul owed his defeat," says Dr. Guthrie, 
"more to the malign influence of the witch of Endor 
than to the arms of the Philistines. When she 
buried hope in his brave heart, she dug his grave; 
victory vanished with the mantled phantom; and 
when Saul, pale, haggard, his spirits depressed, his 
courage sunken as his eye, went to fight, he had no 
chance. The battle of Gilboa was lost before it was 
begun." Several years after he became totally 
blind, John Milton composed his Treatise on Chris- 
tian Doctrine, which required constant reference to 
the sacred volume. A still more extraordinary en- 
terprise was his Latin Dictionary, a work which 
might easily wear out a sound pair of eyes. Well 
might the old poet who after five years of blind- 
ness had the courage to undertake these two vast 
works, along with "Paradise Lost," declare that he 
did "not bate a jot of heart or hope, but still bore 
up and steered tiphillward.'''' Mr. Pendleton's life- 
text was Hebrews 10:35. 




FACULTY IN LATER 60"s. 



CHAPTER XXII 
HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 

College life is always sui generis. In different 
institutions it differs, but the general features of 
this period in every student's experience and every 
such nursery of youth are substantially the same. 
A picture of Bethany life in the later sixties would 
be a picture which every alumnus would recognize. 
The building on the hill had not been marred 
by fire. The society halls in the north wing were 
intact, and beautiful halls they were with open 
roof, well carpeted floors, photographic groups of 
graduating classes of successive years hung on the 
walls, long lines of chairs on either side for the 
members — the President's seat at one end of the 
room on a raised platform, and the rostrum for 
speakers at the other, while the table and seats 
of the critics were midway the hall. Boys were 
said to be on *' performance" when on the program, 
and the exercises consisted of readings, recitations, 
original essays, orations and debates, each in turn 
being gravely and learnedly criticised by the two 
men chosen for this important function, who also 
passed upon the merits of the discussion. 

There were four of these halls, three of them 
used by the American Literary Institute, the Neo- 
trophian and Adelphian societies, and the fourth as 
the college chapel. Back of this part of the build- 
ing a little way was a long, low, ramshackle 

269 



270 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

structure, euphemistically styled the "gymnasium." 
The new commencement hall in the south wing was 
in process of erection, and was first used by the class 
of '71. The corridor and tower were the great 
features of the splendid architectural pile, the one 
for songs and tramps, and the other for its imposing 
beauty and the music of its bell. The town was a 
veritable Sleepy Hollow, sombre and still, save when 
incarnadined and made vocal by the college boys. 
The town folk were the kindly sort that have 
always made Bethany. Curtis and Kerr, and Lauck 
and Davis, and Campbell and Hawkins, and Stewart 
and Lewis, and Lockhart and Rogers, and Ulrick 
and Gibson, were some of the familiar names. 

Scattered over the place everywhere students 
boarded or roomed singly or in clubs. Perhaps the 
most famous of the latter class was the Kit-Kat, 
which had rooms under the college building. No 
institution connected with Bethany, it is safe to say, 
ever achieved so distinctive a place, or lingers more 
fragrantly and flagrantly in the halls of memory. 
Its bill of fare was not equal to that of the Waldorf- 
Astoria, nor its table talk quite up to that of the 
great Kit-Kat of the eighteenth century when Steele 
and Addison, Congreve and Dryden, Walpole and 
Stepney, sat about the board of Christopher Catt 
and ate his mutton pies, but it was a noble institu- 
tion in its way, and the portraits of its members 
would have done honor to Sir Godfrey Kneller's 
canvas. Another club was the Virginia, whose bill 
of fare was printed in Latin, ab ova ad mala^ 
and whose members lived in the back rooms of the 
Curtis store building; and a club by the same name 



HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 271 

that kept house in the first building on the left at 
the foot of the college hill as one entered the town. 

Those were days of plain living and high think- 
ing. Bethany beef was noted for its toughness of 
fibre, and Bethany, treacle for its delicacy of flavor. 
Mush and milk were a famous confection; potatoes 
and apple sauce were regarded as a sumptuous meal. 
Cove oysters and sardines and crackers, apple butter, 
eggs and apples helped to make late hours in stu- 
dents' rooms endurable. Appetites were enormous. 
One boy thought nothing of eating a dozen hard- 
boiled eggs at a sitting after devouring everything 
in sight at the club. Another kept a frying pan on 
hand, and at midnight often would prepare a dish fit 
for Prince Henry, with a quarter of a peck of 
potatoes and a dash of garlic, and consume it as a 
sedative before retiring. The same boy on one 
occasion, when he got a fair show at a city restau- 
rant, ate ninety cents' worth of farinaceous tubers of 
the Early Rose variety when they were selling at 
twenty-five cents a. bushel on the street, and boasted 
of the achievement! Half a dozen Virginia boys, 
brought up on hot bread, gathered one night about 
a huge pan of fresh biscuits just from the oven, and 
entered upon a competitive eating match. One de- 
clared he could eat as many as his friend, the potato 
fiend, but he consum.ed only six, while the other 
IvUcullus easily disposed of nine, and was still 
ahungered. 

Bethany society at this time was very delightful. 
Such homes as those of Dr. Richardson, Col. A. 
Campbell, Albert Allen, Prof. lyoos and President 
Pendleton welcomed the students. Three of the 



272 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

faculty were baclielors, and could not contribute in 
this large way to the social life of the institution, 
but were exceptionally gracious and friendly in 
all their intercourse with the boys. Many of the 
village people contributed to make the student's life 
home-like, and Wellsburg, and even Wheeling, had 
some share in this ministry. "Biz" was brisk. 
The girls of Bethany — who can ever forget them! 
Some had been the girls of Bethany since the foun- 
dation of the college, and had rejoiced in the tri- 
umphs and wept over the valedictories of class after 
class. Some, it may be, had penned little perfumed 
notes and dispatched them by the Bethany small 
boy to more than one favorite, served as "steady 
company" for them at prayer-meetings and society 
performances, crowned them with blossoms on com- 
mencement day, even entered into tender relations 
with them, and then — found others more agreeable 
to their coy and inconstant fancy; yet many a 
boy came to know at Bethany the best woman 
that ever lived. The girls of Bethany — they are 
staid matrons now, but they stayed for many com- 
mencements before they became matrons! 

Diversions were few. An occasional ride to 
Wheeling or Pittsburg to hear such men as Gough 
or Wendell Phillips was a red letter event, and 
a visit to Wellsburg was even a matter of record, but 
many of the students never stirred beyond the limits 
of the little town. Books and the societies absorbed 
them. Baseball was a favorite outdoor game. Win- 
ter always brought fine skating on the creek, and 
sledding on the hillside, and when the season of 
mud was not with us there were splendid walks 



HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 273 

along the pike or over the hills. The banks of the 
Buffalo afforded charming strolls for the reflective 
youth, and Three-State Hill, I^ogan's Hollow, the 
Lone Grave, the Camp Ground, the Falls and 
Bethany Mansion were some of the attractive spots. 
Now and then a peripatetic lecturer came around, 
but the evening amusements were mostly provided 
by the college talent. Holidays at Bethany were 
like angels' visits. President Pendleton had the 
University of Virginia idea, and Thanksgiving day, 
the week of Christmas and the twenty-second of 
February were the only let-ups in .the college year. 
Hazing was never carried to any extreme in those 
good days. Certain fellows of the baser sort would, 
at rare intervals, indulge in "snipe shooting" when 
the unsuspecting plebe was conducted to some re- 
cess among the hills out of sight of the college, and 
set to watch while his companions set out to explore 
the coves for the birds. Left alone to his medita- 
tions, he would come to himself after a time and 
have to find his way home as best he could. The 
process of "smoking out" was also resorted to once 
in a while. A handful of 'red pepper on a layer 
of ashes covering some live coals in a scuttle and 
placed in the hallway, soon sent the young man, 
struggling for breath, to a window, which, like 
as not, he would find securely fastened. The Kan- 
garoo Court was an ancient fraud which sat in 
a barn or some other out-of-the-way temple of jus- 
tice, and some smart Aleck or clownish freshman 
would be summoned to appear before it. Judge and 
jury, lawyers and witnesses were all in regular 

session, grave and absurd charges made, the case 
18 



274 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

argued as for life or death, and sentence imposed in 
due and solemn form. 

Greek fraternities were a popular feature of Beth- 
any life: the Delta Tan Delta, the Phi' Kappa Psi, 
the Beta Theta Pi, and other fraternities, were 
well represented here, and added much to the social 
pleasure and the formation of close friendships. 
Great secrecy attended the meetings, and a general 
air of mystery gathered about their doings, but they 
had their place in the college program. 

The religious atmosphere of Bethany was always 
wholesome. The church and its services, had an 
exalted place. Prof. I^oos was the preacher at this 
time, and his pulpit work was admirable. In every 
respect he was a factor in the development of 
student character. His sermons were alv\^ays in- 
structive and forceful, and his life an illustration of 
what he taught. He "allured to brighter worlds 
and led the way." As Chaucer says: 

"Christ's lore and his apostles twelve 

He taught and first he followed it himself." 

President Pendleton usually presided at the Lord's 
table, and his beautiful and appropriate remarks al- 
ways made that ordinance a most holy season. 
What a rare devotional volume those communion 
talks would have made; — an anthology indeed, 
which would have richly adorned our Church litera- 
ture. Now and then Dr. Richardson or Elder A. 
W. Campbell would break the loaf. Occasionally a 
student was invited to preach in the evening. This 
was a supreme honor, and the boys were his most 
appreciative hearers. The prayer-meetings had 



HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 275 

also a worthy place. Many of the students had 
fine voices and the singing was full of inspiration. 
There was no instrument, and serious consequences 
might have followed its introduction among the 
anti-organists. Many of the young men were prac- 
ticed speakers, and there were few pauses. The 
women took no part. Generally Prof. lyoos led, 
and had only to give the meeting a slight impulse — 
it ran itself. Few of the students ever neglected 
this mid-week service. 

A number of the young men were preachers, and 
practiced on the churches near Bethany. One re- 
members delivering an alleged sermon at Dutch 
Fork on his nineteenth birthday. He took a chum 
along with him He failed on the sermon and 
his chum on the L^ord's Prayer, and they did not go 
again. The same young theologian wrote a sermon 
of great length and profundity, practiced it for a 
week in Logan's Hollow, and got it off on the In- 
dependence congregation. He preached an hour 
and a quarter and they slept the sleep of the just. 
He was not called to serve that church. I^ater 
he preached at West I^iberty and was for a time 
preacher, Sunday-school superintendent, Bible-class 
teacher and sexton at six dollars a Sunday. Final- 
ly, he was for a brief period the pulpit supply at 
* 'Little Washington," where they paid him ten dol- 
lars a week, and when they asked him if that was 
enough he said, "Yes, it's more than the sermons 
are worth." This practicing was great for the 
preachers, but hard on the churches. 

The faculty of the college was not large at this 
time, but strong. Five as faithful men and as gifted 



276 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

teachers as the land could afford filled the chairs. 
President Pendleton was the father of us all, and 
"Billy K." was the title by which he was affection- 
ately and proudly known among the boys. Charles 
lyouis Loos was professor of Languages, an intense 
and laborious man, who impressed himself pro- 
foundly on every student. His characteristic say- 
ings and anecdotes were more quoted and comment- 
ed upon than those of any man in the faculty. His 
peculiar walk, his bearing in the class room, his 
strenuous way of driving ideas into the dullest crani- 
um, his thorough earnestness and genuineness, and 
robustiousness of character and teaching, could not 
be forgotten. We knew him simply as "Prof 
Loos." 

H. Wilson Harding was in the chair of Mathemat- 
ics and Astronomy. He came to Bethany in the 
fall of '66, and left in '73, when he went to Lehigh 
University and was head of the Electric Engineering 
department until 1896. A handsome man, tall and 
a trifle deaf, of highest mental and moral type, dig- 
nified, courtly and gracious, an exceptionally fine 
educator — the boys knew him as "Wilse Harding." 
He was a brother of Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis, 
and an uncle of Richard Harding Davis. 

A. Emerson Dolbear taught the Natural Sciences, 
and was thorough in his specialty. .He came from 
Ann Arbor in ^6"] and left in '74 for Tufts College, 
Boston, and has been there ever since. A plain, 
blunt, matter-of-fact, yet most kindly gentleman; of 
strict integrity, with about everything that one ever 
needs to know of physics, chemistry, botany, zoolo- 
gy, geology and such like bother, stored away in his 



HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 277 

peculiarly formed head, and with excellent skill 
in imparting it to others — the boys, as a unique 
specim'en, labeled him just "Dolbear." 

Since leaving Bethany, Prof. Dolbear has forged 
his way to the front as one of the leading electricians 
of this age of electricity. His achievements all had 
their beginnings, however, on Bethany soil. There 
is a tradition that the first telephone ever heard 
of was stretched by him, and used successfully on 
the college corridor, and John L<auck, who lived in 
the second house from the corner of Main and 
College Streets, under the professor's directions, 
stretched the second from his office to his livery 
stable one hundred feet, and used it regularly and 
successfully, receiver and transmitter being tin cans! 
Prof. Dolbear is the inventor of what is called 
the Bell telephone, the air-space cable, the ammeter 
and wirekss telegraphy. His first experiments lead- 
ing to the invention of the telephone v/ere made at 
Bethany. While there he published a paper on the 
Convertibility of Sound into Electricity, and on the 
Vibrations of a Membrane when Vibrated by the 
Voice. One of his inventions was bought by the 
Western Union Telegraph Company for ten thou- 
sand dollars, and he learned afterwards that the com- 
pany had already voted a hundred thousand for 
it, and he was thus swindled out of the difference. 
His first patent on wireless telegraphy was refused 
by the Patent Office on the ground that it was con- 
trary to science and would not work. It was issued 
to him in 1886, but was badly managed by the com- 
pany to which it was assigned, and nothing came of 
it for the inventor. Over-enthusiastic believers in 



278 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the genuineness and adequacy of the suddenly sus- 
pended "test" of wireless signaling across the At- 
lantic, persist in writing and talking about Marconi 
as the original discoverer of wireless telegraphy, and 
as he has succeeded in getting his name associated 
in the public mind with everything relating to that 
system of communication, probably it is a v/aste of 
time to restate the fact that Marconi obtained his 
knowledge of the subject from the Russian Professor 
Popoff , whose system has been in use in t!; 2 Russian 
navy for some years. Marconi's instruments, upon 
which he obtained patents in this country, are 
copied from Popoff's, and the basic art of his system 
is Dolbear's discovery. He adopted Dolbear's sys- 
tem and adapted the coherer to it. Marconi is 
neither the discoverer nor the pioneer of wireless 
telegraphy, but to Prof. Dolbear belongs tliat dis- 
tinction. 

The professor has written a number of books: 
The Art of Projecting, written at Bethany; The 
Speaking Telephone; Matter, Ether and Motion; 
The Modes of Motion, and a textbook on Physics. 
He still enjoys life, and is actively connected with 
Tufts College. He says, "I wish I could meet 
at Bethany all the students v^^ho were there in those 
old days of thirty years ago. We v/ould talk, and 
laugh, and cry, and separate with hopes and regrets, 
as we did before, but not with the buoyancy we felt 
then. Thirty years is a long time in one's life, 
though short in history." 

Another member of Bethany's faculty at this time 
was Benjamin T. Jones, adjunct professor of Lan- 
guages. Thin-limbed, but big-brained; breakfast- 



HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 279 

ing, dining and supping on Greek verbs and sucTi 
like diet; a man honored and beloved by all, despite 
bis rigorous training as plain "Ben Jones." After 
a few years at Betbany, be filled a cbair at Buchtel 
College, Akron, Obio, and was successively superin- 
tendent of scbools at Millersburg, Asbland and Eel- 
laire, Obio. He is now a professor in tbe Cleveland 
bigb scbool. There never was a better drill master 
in tbe Greek or I^atin grammar in any institution, 
nor a more genial gentleman. 

Prof. Robert Kidd, teacher of elocution, is also 
remembered. He came around every year, formed 
classes, and instructed them in this art; gave his en- 
tertainment in which "Roger and I" and similar 
subjects figured, and finally died at a ripe old age. 
Mark Fowler, the college janitor, should not be 
omitted here— in many respects the most important 
functionary of all. 

President Pendleton at this time was at bis best. 
Who can forget bis morning lectures on the Bible, 
delivered before the chapel class! In political econ- 
omy, what lively times were sometimes enjoyed 
when the question of free trade versus protection 
was under consideration! The class is in logic — 
hear him: "Let me caution you, gentlemen, 
against trusting too much to dictionaries when you 
would distinguish nicely and correctly between 
words that differ. A dictionary gives you all the 
uses of all writers of almost all ages. The scholar, 
the thought-builder, tbe regulative and creative 
mind wants the essence, the abstract power of tbe 
word, and that is simple and one, not mixed or 
many. When he uses it he knows what he is about. 



28o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and there is no confusion in what he says. Nine- 
tenths of the wars among minds grow out of this: 
the combatants don't understand one another's 
words — don't for the most part understand their 
own words. It is a word-war — more learnedly, a 
logomachy. Grant me ambiguity in the terms, and 
I can prove anything. For example: 

One cat has one more tail than no-cat-, 
But no-cat has two tails; 
Ergo., one cat has three tails. 

Crack this logical nut, and you will discover the 
force of what I have said about ambiguity in the 
terms by which and on which we reason." 

How clear and conclusive always his own state- 
ments! What a charm he could throw over the 
hard, cold, dull pages of that text-book on logic! 
Its most stupid facts became under his touch as in- 
teresting and luminous as the old sorites of Themis- 
tocles about his infant son commanding the whole 
world: "My infant son rules his mother. His 
mother rules me. I rule the Athenians. The 
Athenians rule the Greeks. The Greeks rule 
Europe. Europe rules the world." 

But it was metaphysics which proved a veritable 
ecstasy to the student under Mr. Pendleton. When 
himself a student in the university, he had shown a 
special aptitude for this great branch of philosophy 
which deals with the conceptions or principles at the 
basis of all phenomena, and in a famous will case in 
which Garfield, Black and others figured, when Mr. 
Pendleton was under examination by Judge Black, 
and the discussion drifted into the realm of meta- 



HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE JUVABIT 281 

physics, a distinguished lawyer of Virginia, Judge 
Robertson of the Supreme Court of the state, who 
was present, said that never in all his life had 
he been so highly entertained or so impressed with 
the ability of any man as he was with the president 
of Bethany College. 

•Sir William Hamilton was quite equal to the 
Wizard of the North when interpreted by this master 
hand. All the hardest things in those three great 
subdivisions of philosophy — Pyschology, or the 
Science of the Phenomena of Mind; Nomology, or 
the Science of its Laws, and Ontology, or the 
Science of Results and Inferences — were made easy 
and even fascinating under the president. They 
seem far away now and somewhat misty through the 
vista of years, but the old boys will remember how 
really entertaining he made the most abstruse and 
bewildering discussions. His department was re- 
garded as furnishing the capstone of the course. 
As a teacher he is remembered, but most reverently 
and affectionately as a man. If the question were 
asked of those who were under his instruction, 
''What did you think of the president?" it is prob- 
able that with one voice would come the answer, 
*'He was the noblest gentleman I ever knew." 

And what could be better? "What is it to be a 
gentleman?" asks Thackeray. "It is to have lofty 
aims, to lead a pure life, to keep your honor virgin, 
to have the esteem of your fellow citizens and the 
love of your fireside. To bear good fortune meekly, 
to suffer evil with constancy, and through evil and 
good to maintain the truth always. Show me the 
happy man whose life exhibits these qualities, and 



282 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

him we will salute as a gentleman, whatever his 
rank in life may be." As thorough a gentleman as 
ever dwelt in the courts of kings, was the miracle of 
a man that looked into the face of Jesus Christ on 
the road to Damascus. His apology to Ananias, the 
High Priest; his greeting to Agrippa; his words 
to his persecutors: "I am not mad, most noble Fes- 
tus, but speak forth the words of truth and sober- 
ness"; "I would to God that not only thou, but 
also all that hear me this day, were both almost and 
altogether such as I am save these bonds' ' ; his ad- 
dress on Mars' Hill: "Ye men of Athens, I per- 
ceive that you are very devout"; his precepts: "Bear 
ye one another's burdens"; "In honor preferring 
one another"; "Honor all men" — all show the high 
Christian courtesy of the great Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles. 

It was said by an English poet of the Master him- 
self: 

"The best of men 
That ever wore earth about him was a sufferer, 
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit — 
The first true gentleman that ever breathed." 



CHAPTER XXIII 
LAST DAYS OF THE HARBINGER 

With the year 1869 the Harbinger entered upon 
its fortieth volume. Mr. Pendleton writes on Hu- 
manity and Progress, In the Name, The Great 
Want of the Colored People, Work the Problem Out, 
Piety More than Orthodoxy, John iii:8. The Want 
of Preachers, The Bible in the Common Schools, 
Inspiration of Scripture, and other themes. His 
pen and voice are busy constantly. He has the 
labors of the college, and is unusually active in the 
missionary conventions. 

It was in the days when the A. C. M. S. had a 
semi-annual meeting in May. This convocation was 
held in St. Louis, and sat for three days. R. M. 
Bishop presided. Such men as Allen, Palmer, 
Steele and Jones, of the fathers, v/ere there. Regu- 
lar addresses were made by A. I. Hobbs and G. W. 
Longan. A. B. Jones, W. T. Moore and J. S. 
Sweeney were also appointed to speak during the 
sessions. It was the first time he ever heard 
Sweeney, and he is greatly impressed with his style. 
"I imagine he does not read very much, but that he 
thinks a good deal," ssljs Mr. Pendleton. "This 
gives him originality, and in this there is always in- 
terest." Ten-minute speeches seemed a part of the 
program, and he mentions Procter, Parsons, Petti- 
grew, Bartholomew, Risk, Haley, Reynolds, Butler, 
Rice, Long, Mountjoy, Tyler, Sloan and Caskey. 

283 



284 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

They had "the ring of the true metal," gave "no 
uncertain sound." One beautiful feature in the 
management he specially commends. At the last 
session twelve or fifteen young preachers, whose rev- 
erence for older ones had kept them in commenda- 
ble silence, were specially called out by name, and 
without a failure or apology, promptly responded. 
As was said of Aaron, when nominated for Moses' 
mouthpiece, they spoke well. He is complimented 
when he thinks that nearly all the speakers were 
graduates of Bethany College. "Noble fellows in 
this noblest fellowship — the fellowship of the Chris- 
tian ministry." 

The chief business item of this convention is in- 
troduced in a vigorous appeal by Thomas Munnell, 
Corresponding Secretary, for a more effective finan- 
cial policy, and after much speaking the whole mat- 
ter is referred to a committee of twenty to report at 
the next annual meeting at lyouisville, Ky., in Octo- 
ber. This was the beginning of the famous "Louis- 
ville plan," and the committee consists of Moore, 
Pendleton, Procter, Errett, Franklin, Enos Camp- 
bell, I^ard, King, Belding, lyongan, Graham, Sloan, 
Burgess, Hobbs, lyoos, Sweeney, Caskey, Lamar, 
Karnes and Reynolds. The duty of the committee 
was to report a practical, scriptural plan of co-oper- 
ation which should unite the whole brotherhood of 
Disciples in uniform measures for raising money and 
spreading the Gospel. 

Mr. Pendleton is the guest here of Dr. Hiram 
Christopher. He writes of Shaw's Garden and 
Franklin Park, with its statue of Thomas H. Ben- 
ton, which he thinks in face lacks the qualities of 



LAST DAYS OF THE HARBINGER 285 

the hard-money statesman. "It is the face of a phi- 
lanthropist rather than that of an American senator 
in the stern days of the Republic. The face is 
turned to the West. The right hand holds a scroll 
inscribed with a map of North America, and on the 
pedestal are cut these almost prophetic words, when 
pointing towards the West he exclaimed, 'There is 
the Bast!' Did he foresee that in so few years the 
way to the gates of the Orient would be by rail 
across the Rocky Mountains?" 

In company with R. M. Bishop and W. S. Dick- 
inson, he goes to Cincinnati and spends Sunday 
with the Walnut Street Church. "On Sunday 
morning," he says, "we had a delightful interview 
with the Sunday-school, after which we preached 
for the congregation." From Cincinnati he went 
to the Ohio State meeting at Alliance, and here 
again he met "masses of brethren all alive to the 
great work of spreading the Gospel." Timothy 
Coop is here, and his wife, from Southport, England. 
R. R. Sloan makes a fine report of the missionary 
labors of the year. The Society has raised for mis- 
sionary purposes $6,800, and had 878 additions to 
the churches under its missionaries. There are 340 
churches in the State, and the estimated member- 
ship 28,000. Moffett, Garfield, Shepard and Bur- 
gess are among the speakers here. 

Another prominent meeting attended this year is 
the Preachers' Institute of Illinois, which met at 
Eureka. Mr. Pendleton delivered a series of lec- 
tures here on the History of Christian Doctrine. 
Other lecturers are Thomas Munnell, P. M. Bruner, 
H. W. Everest, A. S. Hayden and A. J. Thompson. 



286 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

The meeting lasted ten days. He gives the names 
of all the preachers present, over sixty in number, 
and mentions many brethren whose hospitality he 
enjoyed. "The blessing and the peace of God rest 
upon them all." He is delighted with the college, 
with the church, with the meeting, with the fellov/- 
ship of the preachers and people, with the country 
about Eureka. Nothing gave him greater happi- 
ness than these gatherings. Eureka is beautifully 
situated in the midst of an extensive grove, which. 
sits like an island in a sea of prairie. Around it are 
magnificent farms, and a population virtuous and 
intelligent. H. W. Everest is president of the col- 
lege, A. S. Hayden, pastor of the church, G. W. 
Minier presides over the institute. There are fifty 
lectures, five each day, preaching every evening, 
and an hour or two of general discussion, and the 
general sentiment is that they never spent a ten 
days more profitably. 

What powers of endurance these good men must 
have had! Where could a body of preachers be 
found to-day who would be able to live through ten 
whole days of such a feast of reason and flow of soul! 
Now a congress or convention of three days gets 
man}'- of its delegates on the second day's session, 
and loses many others on the day before adjourn- 
ment. We are not the better for it. Hurry is the 
bane of our time. A Chicago lawyer in this year of 
grace, 1902, held a Pennsylvania court for thirty- 
five hours, speaking three hundred thousand words, 
while the whole Bible has only seven hundred and 
seventy-three thousand words; and Thomas W. Phil- 
lips' Industrial Commission has nineteen octavo vol- 



LAST DAYS OF THE HARBINGER 287 

umes of eighteen millions of words! Why should 
not a religious convention and the reports of Chris- 
tian progress and sermons and lectures have some 
space as well? 

The General Convention in Louisville is attended 
as usual, and the Committee of Twenty reports its 
plan. It is a sort of blanket scheme to cover the 
whole territory of the Church, organizing district, 
State and national boards, and arranging for a divis- 
ion of the contribution of the churches for missions 
— half to be under the control of district boards, and 
half to go to the work of the State and general 
board. Mr. Pendleton reports the convention which 
adopted it as one of unparalleled interest. The 
committee had been enlarged to thirty, and spent 
many days in perfecting its report. Every item and 
word in it were subjected to exhaustive criticism, 
and when it went before the convention, while it 
was fully and minutely discussed, it was adopted by 
this large and representative body with scarcely the 
change of a word and with but one dissenting voice. 
Isaac Krrett said of the plan: "It has the unifying 
elements of an ecclesiasticism, but at the same time 
leaves the churches perfectly independent. It is 
simply co-operation without legislation; a beauti- 
ful working system with no power to interfere with 
the faith of any. Should the churches generally 
adopt it, and we have every confidence that they 
will, it will not be long before we see a new interest 
among our people in missionary work." Benjamin 
Franklin said: "In our estimation it is the most 
simple, natural and wise arrangement ever made, 
and we believe that it will commend itself to all who 



288 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

desire to do anything beyond their own immediate- 
vicinities for the spread of the Gospel. We have 
never seen anything proposed that came near meet- 
ing with the same approbation in a convention. 
Nor have we seen anything that could give such an 
unequivocal approval. We hope now that every 
friend of evangelizing will put his hand to the work 
and push the work, and let us hear no more about 
plans and societies, but work. We can work and 
live, or refuse to work and die. Work or die is the 
rule." These are the voices of the rival oracles, the 
"Standard" and "Christian Review." 

"I trust," says Mr. Pendleton in the Harbinger, 
"that the current year may prove to be one of 
unparalleled activity in this great cause, and that 
this system which rests upon the basis of the 
churches and makes its appeal primarily and direct- 
ly to their free and independent co-operation, will 
'become at once uniformly adopted and thoroughly 
carried out." The plan never had a practical appli- 
cation. It is one of the curiosities of the missionary 
history of the Disciples. 

In his announcement for 1870, the editor intimates 
the suspension of the Harbinger. "We know there 
are thousands of the best hearts among us who 
would regret to have the publication of the Harbin- 
ger discontinued. We are free to say that its pub- 
lication is not with us a matter of pecuniary interest. 
Were this the consideration we should at once aban- 
don it. We have a higher purpose." 

The college is in excellent condition. The num- 
ber of students is one hundred and eighteen, repre- 
senting sixteen states, and also England, Canada 



LAST DAYS OF THE HARBINGER 289 

and Prince Edward Island. There are seventeen 
graduates, among them W. P. Aylesworth, B S 
Dean, and W. K. McAllister. A scientific course 
with the degree of B. S. is established, and a Bib- 
lica Institute announced, with Isaac Krrett as one 
of the professors. 

January 1870, the Harbinger begins its closin<. 
volume. The editor writes on Deacons, Christolot 
gy, I.ife, Education, Union with the Baptists, and 
publishes two lectures on the Doctrine of the Trin 
ity and the Doctrine of the Existence of God 
Knowles Shaw holds a meeting in February ai 
WellsDurg, and Mr. Pendleton writes of the noted 
evangelist m a very appreciative way. "We have 
just had the pleasure of spending a part of the day 
with our earnest and devoted brother, Knowles 
Shaw, of Rushville, Ind. He is holding a protract- 
ed meeting for our neighbors at Wellsburg. It has 
been two weeks in progress, and up to the present 
time over one hundred have been added to the 
church, nearly all of them by baptism. He be-an 
the meeting in December, but was summ.oned home 
by the Illness of a beloved daughter, a noble and 
lovely Christian girl, which it pleased the Father 
soon after to take home to himself. We have never 
before been so strongly impressed with the power 
of the Christian's faith to lighten these heavy cross- 
es as when hearing Brother Shaw speak of his 
bereavement. There is infinitely more than resig- 
nation: the door of the Heavenly mansions seems 
opened to his view, and the radiance from within 
spans even the dark river. Returning to Wells- 
burg, he has been preaching every evening to 



290 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

crowded houses, and with continually increasing- 
interest on the part of his hearers. A prominent 
feature in the character of Brother Shaw is his ear- 
nestness, and God is blessing it as he ever delights 
to do. He is a man of his own sort and works in 
a way all his own. His heart is full of the love 
of souls, faith in the gospel, and a sense of depend- 
ence upon the divine blessing for success, and 
in this spirit he works day and night, from house to 
house, on the streets, in the offices of business, and 
in all places where men do congregate. His success 
is a fine illustration of the power of love to win the 
prejudiced and to unite the divided. All classes and 
denominations throng to hear him. They feel that 
he loves them and the truth, and will sacrifice any- 
thing lawful to save them." 

The college this year does not enroll so large a 
number of young men. There are ninety-one in 
attendance, and fourteen graduates at the June 
commencement, among them W. S. Atkinson, W. 
C. Lyne, H. N. Mertz and A. B. Wells. John F. 
Rowe, William J. Barbee and A. Campbell are 
added to the Board of Trustees. The financial 
agent, Albert Allen, reports twenty-five thousand 
dollars added to the college fund during the year. 

In October Mr. Pendleton announces that the 
Harbinger will be discontinued at the end of the 
year. "Other work has so grown upon our hands 
that we must either neglect it for the Harbinger, or 
the Harbinger for it. Between the two it is thought 
by nearest friends best that we should prefer the 
former, and in this judgment we are constrained 
reluctantly to concur. The Harbinger is now near 



LAST DAYS OF THE HARBINGER 291 

the close of tlie forty-first volume. For nearly thirty 
years of its career we have been connected with its 
publication, and for seven years its proprietor. 
We consent to its termination with feelings of sad- 
ness. It seems like the breaking up of the long 
communion, the parting of friends with whom we 
have walked about the porch of Zion in sweet coun- 
sel for many years; the sundering of cords of loving 
fellowships that shall be renewed on earth no more 
forever. It is not from fickleness that we take this 
step; this is not my nature; nor is it from the desire 
of respite from labor; this, the position which I 
hold as president of Bethany College, and the in- 
creasing demands for literary work in other fields, 
forbid me to expect. It is a question of relative 
duty — only this and nothing more." 

In closing the volume he writes this valedictory: 
"With this number of the Harbinger, we close 
our editorial labors. We take no formal leave of 
our readers, however, for we do not expect to with- 
draw from all intercourse with them. In many ways 
we hope to commune with them, and we trust with 
no diminished interest or profit. We cannot write 
this last page, however, without grateful acknowl- 
edgment to the many friends who have expressed 
regrets at the cessation of the Harbinger. We are 
not insensible to the kindness of their approval of 
our poor labors, and accept it with regret that we 
have not been more deserving of it. 

"I thought, at one time, to indulge in some re- 
view of the past, to write a sketchy biography of 
an old friend, — the Millennial Harbinger, — and take 
the younger readers back with me over the years of 



292 LIFE OF W. K. PEN]3LETON 

its life whicli were passed in conflict for the truth, 
before they had entered the sacred service, but I 
could not do it without saying many things which 
would require more space to explain than one num- 
ber could afford, and so I preferred to make a quiet 
bow and leave the past to such as like to live in it. 
Doubtless there are many things which I might have 
done better, and also some which it were better that 
I had not done at all. But regrets are vain, and 
time and opportunity too precious to be wasted in 
fruitless repining. My comfort is in the conscious- 
ness that in all things I have ijitended the best for 
the interests of the Church. To this, I can, without 
any reservation, turn with assurance, even where 
success has been the poorest. 

"The office of religious teacher we have felt to be 
the highest and most sacred that can be laid upon 
us. Fidelity to truth, unselfish devotion to the in- 
terests of the Church, large charity for the errors 
and prejudices of men, forbearance in dealing with 
differences of opinion, wise foresight for the grow- 
ing wants and difficulties of grov/th and develop- 
ment, and a readiness to sink ambition, personal ag- 
grandizement in fortune or in fame, and even con- 
scious superiority of light and knowledge for the 
peace and edification of the body — all these are 
needed qualifications in the public religious teacher, 
and how rare is the combination of gifts! Yet, the 
virtue that enables one to see and acknowledge that 
he does not possess them is almost as rare as is the 
possession of the gifts, hence so many of us are 
ready to usurp the divine prerogative, and, with no 
higher call than our own ambition, or avarice, or 



LAST DAYS OF THE HARBINGER 293 

vanity, to assume to be not only magnates in the 
realm of mind but also to become the licensed 
teachers of men. 

"Personally, I am indebted beyond what I can 
ever hope to repay, in fraternal regard, in public 
respect for what we are conscious we have so defect- 
ively done, in editorial courtesy, in encouraging 
appreciation of the past in the public service of the 
Church, and, above all, in the prayerful fervor with 
which our readers have so continually borne me up, 
when I was ready to faint. We can only thank God 
that he has permitted me to know so much in the 
great heart of the brotherhood, to increase my con- 
fidence in the divine nobility of humanity, and 
make me love and trust them with increasing 
strength and assurance. The Church is not the 
world, it is far more, a society of purity, of brother- 
ly love, of wise philanthropy, of social ordinances 
and heavenly hopes, and its holy bond is love of 
God. The more we experience her fellowship, the 
more we feel the power of her divine life. Beauti- 
ful are her tabernacles, and sweet the communion 
of her children! The closer we bind to our hearts 
the children whom we have seen, the nearer do we 
draw to the Father whom we have not seen. 

"Great progress has been made towards this simple 
and apostolic basis of union and co-operation — and 
to it we must come, or Christianity will fail of its 
power over the masses and lose its efficacy and bless- 
ing as the Gospel for the poor. 

"To this end, with more or less clearness of ob- 
ject and steadiness of aim, the Reformation has 
been laboring now for half a century, and there are 



294 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

not a few who see of the fruits of its labor and re- 
joice. Let us persevere, and as we grow stronger in 
numbers and power let us also become free of secta- 
rian unity and exclusiveness, that our work may 
still tend to the union of the saints and the restora- 
tion of the old landmarks of the apostolic age. 

"At the call of the voice of wise brethren, we 
turn our pen now to another line of service, but we 
work to the same end, and shall labor in the assur- 
ance that as in the past, so in the future, the breth- 
ren will open their hearts to all that is good and 
noble, and for the edification of the body. 

"We ask to be held up on the hands of many 
prayers, and, renewing our obligation of continued 
service, pass from the pages of the Harbinger to 
more permanent and connected lines of labor and 
thought, in the hope and faith that the blessing of 
God will ever go with us in his service." 









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THE PREACHER-STATESMAN. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
GOOD CITIZENSHIP 

It is doubtful if any character in our complicated 
civilization fills so large a place as the educator — if 
in any sphere of service one touches humanity at so 
many points. The well-known talismanic sentence, 
"The schoolmaster is abroad," has a vast meaning. 
In his great speech on the elevation of Wellington, 
*'a mere military chieftain," to the premiership 
after the death of Canning, Lord Brougham said: 
"Field Marshal, the Duke of Wellington, may take 
the army, he may take the navy, he may take the 
great seal, he may take the mitre. I make him a 
present of them all. L<et him come on with his 
whole force, sword in hand, against the Constitution, 
and the English people will not only beat him back, 
but laugh at his assaults. In other times the coun- 
try may have heard with dismay that the soldier was 
abroad. It will not be so now. Let the soldier be 
abroad if he will; he can do nothing in this age. 
There is another personage abroad — a personage less 
imposing — in the eyes of some perhaps insignificant. 
The schoolmaster is abroad^ and I trust to him, 
armed with his primer, against the soldier in full 
military array." "The schoolmaster and the Bible 
are the hope of this country," said Garfield when 
President of the United States. 

Not only in the class room, however, training 
boys and girls in the rudiments of learning, nor in 

295 



296 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the lecture room, molding the thought and the char- 
acter of the young men and women of the nation, 
has the educator had his place and power. He has 
been the most potent factor in the edification of the 
republic and the promotion of all good citizenship. 
Who can measure the influence of such men as 
Blair, Hopkins, Angell, Dwight, Woolsey, Eliot? 
When Dr. Busby was asked how he kept the head 
mastership of Westminster through the successive 
and turbulent reigns of Charles I. , Oliver Cromwell, 
Charles II. and James, he answered, "The fathers 
govern the nation, the mothers govern the fathers, 
the boys govern the mothers, and I govern the 
boys." Lord Brougham hoped to see the day when 
every man in the United Kingdom could read Bacon, 
and Cobbett said, "It will be much more to the pur- 
pose if his lordship could use his influence to see 
that every man in the kingdom could ^^^? bacon." 
The schoolmaster's vvork includes both, and the 
schoolmaster has gone beyond the schoolroom and 
made himself directly felt in all the social and polit- 
ical life of the nation. He is an all-around man 
among men. He is a citizen as well as a trainer of 
citizens. 

In all the general interests of the community in 
which he lived, and the larger interests of the nation 
of which that community was a part, Mr. Pendleton 
felt a deep concern and took an active share. It 
was his inheritance. By force of character and abil- 
ity his people had taken prominent places in the 
history of the old commonwealth of Virginia. In all 
the early chronicles, as well as in the later records 
of the old State, the vigor of the stock asserts itself. 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 297 

Running through many collateral branches of the 
family as well as the direct line, it helped to mold 
the character of what some one has termed "a pecu- 
liar, ancient provincialism, self-respecting, God-fear- 
ing, home-loving, gallant to women, exacting to 
men, brave, generous, bookish and hospitable." 
The writer might have added, "liberty loving, pub- 
lic spirited and patriotic." There are many pas- 
sages in the history of the Old Dominion that illus- 
trate the characteristic quality of the family. One 
of them went off with Governor Spottswood in 17 16 
to discover a passage over the mountains and the 
unexplored regions of the northwest. The chronicle 
says the whole company consisted of about fifty per- 
sons, and that they had a number of riding and 
pack horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and 
an extraordinary supply of liquors. They were 
obliged to provide a great quantity of horseshoes, 
things seldom used in the eastern portion of the col- 
ony where there were no stones, upon which ac- 
count, the historian adds, the Governor presented 
each of his companions on their return with a mini- 
ature golden horseshoe, set with jewels, and in- 
scribed on the reverse, ^^Sic jttvat transcendere 
monies ^'^'' to be worn by them as evidence of their 
fellowship in this expedition and of their admission 
into an order of knighthood created and dubbed by 
him "Knights of the Horseshoe." The cost of this 
chivalrous conceit of the gallant old Governor was 
duly certified to the home government, but, the 
chronicler adds, greatly to the Governor's disgust, 
they penuriously refused its payment. 

Another descendant of Philip Pendleton, John 



298 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Pendleton, the great grandfather of President Pen- 
dleton, was appointed a commissioner during the in- 
terregnum which followed Governor Dunmore's ex- 
pulsion, to arrange for paying the militia, and was 
instructed to sign fifty thousand treasury notes in 
the name of the commonwealth. His brother, Ed- 
mund, at the same time was employed, together 
with Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, George Ma- 
son and Thomas Ludwell Lee, to revise its laws. 
Edmund Pendleton's history is a glorious chapter in 
the life of the Old Dominion and of the nation as 
well. A second Edmund Pendleton, father of W. K. 
Pendleton, served the people in a judicial office of 
great usefulness and dignity. It seemed natural 
that the college professor and president should be 
moved to a lively recognition of those larger duties 
commonly grouped under the good word citizenship. 
When the young lawyer came to the bar in 1840, 
the country was ablaze with the great presidential 
contest of that year. He was an ardent Whig, and 
the memorable canvass of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, 
too," which stirred the nation possibly as it has 
never been stirred before or since that election, en- 
listed his time and attention. He was chosen as a 
delegate to the Young Men's National Ratification 
Convention which met in Baltimore, closely follow- 
ing the Whig Convention, to indorse the nomination 
of Harrison and Tyler, and his enthusiasm was 
heightened there by the presence of Clay and Web- 
ster and the other great Whig leaders who attended 
its sittings. With his heart full of the movement, 
he went back to Virginia to give an account of his 
stev/ardship as a delegate and to aid in the election 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 299 

of the WHig candidates on the stump and hustings, 
the power of which, as molders of public opinion, 
had not then been lessened by the decay of oratory 
and the increase of the public press. It is not un- 
likely that he would have permanently joined the 
great army of Virginia lawyers who talked law and 
practiced politics, but for the change in his domes- 
tic relations which occurred at this period. 

In every way Mr. Pendleton was ever persistent 
and progressive in seeking the public good. He 
had much to do with the improvement of the roads 
and the introduction of better means of transporta- 
tion in his section of the State of West Virginia. 
The route to Wellsburg from Bethany, for example, 
now so attractive and substantial, was formerly over 
the hills around whose sides the "Narrows" now 
run, and this road in winter was indescribable for 
the v\^ear and tear of vehicles, the discomfort and 
absolute dangers to travelers and the time and good 
nature consumed in making the journey. In his 
effort to have it built as it runs to-day, Mr. Pendle- 
ton for the first time came in contact with the rep- 
resentative farmers of Brooke County. They were 
intensely conservative — they are still. When he 
reasoned with the road commissioners, demonstrated 
the saving to horses and wagons by explaining the 
philosophy of pulling, pointed out the possibilities 
as well as advantages, and showed them the survey 
of the route which had been made, they smiled 
kindly, but firmly said it sounded well, looked well 
on paper, and naturally commended itself to a young 
college professor without practical experience, but 
was not to be thought of. Fortunately, there was 



300 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

one of the commissioners who lent an attentive ear 
and finally said, ''I believe the Professor is right I 
should like to see his ideas tried." This man stood 
by him, and the beautiful driveway over which the 
visitor reaches Bethany to-day through the tunnels 
and along the Narrows was constructed. At a later 
period, when the most convenient way to reach the 
railroad was to drive sixteen miles over the hills to 
Wheeling, or cross the river at Wellsburg, often a 
perilous undertaking in time of flood or ice, Mr. 
Pendleton set to work for a railroad on the east side 
of the Ohio. Naturally it was a painstaking, pro- 
tracted effort to educate the people to the advan- 
tages of such an enterprise — a conservative people, 
seeing as they did only the first cost. A large sub- 
scription was finally voted, but the money gave out 
too soon, and an additional fifteen thousand was 
asked for. Voters at once took the attitude of ''I 
told you so," and Mr. Pendleton pleaded with 
tongue and pen, wrote for the papers, stumped the 
county, demonstrating with figures what must, in 
the nature of things, be the earnings of the road at 
the start, and when nothing more could be done 
went on to Philadelphia to see the great railroad 
magnate, Tom Scott, and presented in practical 
detail the desirability of the line as a possession of 
the Pennsylvania. He was well received, and came 
away with the encouragement to hope for the ulti- 
mate completion of the road. It came in good time, 
and the estimates made by him in urging it upon 
the community proved exactly correct. 

Busy with journalism, preaching and teaching, he 
yet found time to take an active interest jn the 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 301 

political affairs of the State and country. He never 
believed that any man's profession or occupation 
should seclude him from the active discharge of his 
duty as a good citizen, and in 1850, when asked to 
stand as a candidate for membership in the Virginia 
Constitutional Convention of that year, he consented 
and undertook the canvass of the district in com- 
pany with other candidates. It was to him, at least, 
a pleasant and profitable canvass, though he failed 
at an election. The district was a large one, taking 
in the present counties of Marion and Monongalia, 
as well as the present four counties of the northern 
Panhandle, and the candidates journeyed over it in 
company, each one presenting his views as to pro- 
posed changes in, and additions to, the organic law 
of the State. There were seven or eight candidates, 
but only four to be chosen, and when the votes were 
counted Mr. Pendleton's name stood fifth upon the 
list, but the vigor of his canvass and the breadth 
and knowledge displayed by him in the discussion 
of important constitutional questions attracted the 
attention of the Whig party to which he still be- 
longed, and strengthened the confidence of the 
public generally in his fitness to fill any office of 
representative capacity. 

In 1855 the Whig party began to exhibit signs 
of approaching dissolution, and the Know-nothing 
organization gathered in a good many of the mem- 
bers. Prof. Pendleton declined to submit his advo- 
cacy to the secrecy of the lodges, believing that no 
political principle under our system of government 
ought to be advocated in secret, but being assured 
that the secret organization was devised only as a 



302 LIFE OF W, K. PENDLETON 

means of retaining party strength and effectiveness, 
and that the principles of the party were to be 
openly considered and discussed, he accepted its 
congressional nomination in his district, and made 
the canvass of that year against Congressman Kid- 
well of Fairmont, then an applicant for a second 
term. 

It was a memorable contest in the district. The 
opposition put its strongest men in the field. Gov- 
ernor Wise, Lieutenant-Governor McCoraas, Senator 
Mason and other celebrated Eastern Virginia orators 
were imported. The candidate for congressional 
honors had to make his fight on the stump almost 
single-handed, but he had gained some experience 
and confidence in himself during his convention 
candidacy and the Eastern Virginians soon found 
they were likely to lose more than they gained 
when they met him in joint debate. A bout with 
McComas at Morgantown induced that gentleman 
and his friends to give the West Virginian a wide 
berth thereafter, and from that time to the end of 
the canvass he was allowed to conduct his campaign 
against Kidwell unmolested by outside interruption. 
As an old-time Whig he upheld the doctrine of pro- 
tection to American interests formulated by Mr. 
Clay, and denounced the system of viva voce voting 
under which the laborer and those dependent upon 
others for employment might be hampered in the 
free expression of political opinion. Discounte- 
nancing secret organizations, except for the protec- 
tion of voters, where such protection was neces- 
sary, he advocated full and fair discussion in public 
upon every political question, and while maintain- 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 303 

ing the right of the government to regulate, as it 
had always regulated, the franchises and other polit- 
ical rights of foreign-born citizens, he denounced as 
the meanest of political persecutions the intolerance 
which sought to abridge the privilege of foreign- 
born citizens by reason of any religious opinions 
they might entertain. As to questions of prece- 
dence, when the statutes of the country and the 
orders of foreign powers, whether such power claimed 
temporal or spiritual authority, might come in con- 
flict, he upheld the authority of the government and 
advocated its right to command obedience under 
the Constitution to laws made in pursuance of that 
instrument, but he soon after reached the conclusion 
that with the growth of the republic and the inevit- 
able drift of its foreign-born population into our pre- 
vailing modes of thought any serious conflict of this 
character was impossible, and that political restric- 
tions against it would be both unnecessary and 
wrong. In this canvass he succeeded in cutting 
down the previous majority of his opponent from 
about forty-five hundred to less than twelve hundred 
votes, and, although defeated, won the admiration 
of supporters and antagonists alike by the fairness 
and candor with which he discussed issues then 
pending. 

At the presidential election of 1861 he supported 
the conservative ticket, headed by Bell and Everett, 
and from that time forward adhered to the Demo- 
cratic party. 

While the Civil War progressed, and subsequent 
to the formation of the new State of West Virginia, 
he was subject to some little annoyances growing 



304 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

out o^f the heat of partisan feeling, and closely fol- 
lowing the return of peace he was disfranchised by 
the registrars of his own county, although he had 
taken no part against the federal authority. These 
discomforts, however, were of brief duration. In 
1871 he was nominated by the Democratic and Re- 
publican Convention of his senatorial district and 
unanimously chosen as a senatorial representative in 
the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 
1872. He v/as urged by many for the office of pres- 
ident of the convention, but was not a candidate. 
He was frequently called, however, to preside over 
its sessions. 

In this convention he found a wide and congenial 
field. Made up of the best material which the new 
State could furnish, and including the best repre- 
sentatives of all its political parties, there were few 
men in it whose opportunities of preparing for the 
work it was called upon to do, had been equal to 
his; and there were none who brought to its labor 
more zeal and industry. The spirit in which he 
took hold of the duties of the convention is illus- 
trated by a passage from his letter accepting the 
nominations of the two parties in his district: "I 
can conceive no place," he said, "for partisan poli- 
tics in a work like this, but only for the patriotic 
and conscientious endeavor to frame for the whole 
State and all her people alike a fundamental law, 
under which she may win the admiration of her 
sister States, hold out incentives to foreign labor and 
capital to settle within her borders, promote domes- 
tic harmony, educate and ennoble her children, and 
so transmit to succeeding generations the blessings 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 305 

of free homes, free schools and free institutions." 

In this spirit, and with the advantages which the 
studious habits of a lifetime supplied him, he 
grasped the various and complicated questions pre- 
sented for the consideration of the convention. 

To remedy the defects of the old constitution 
without losing any of its advantages; to adjust the 
fundamental law and organization of the new State 
to the progressive spirit of the times, without losing 
sight of any principle or provision which experience 
had proved to be just and necessary, required a re- 
view of the entire field of social and political econ- 
omy as well as a careful study of the special require- 
ments of the new commonwealth and its relations to 
sister States and the Federal Government. To this 
task Prof. Pendleton brought a mind naturally log- 
ical and keenly analytical, trained to the elucidation 
of correct principles and delighting in the investi- 
gation of both theory and fact. His legal trainino- 
and historical reading, together with his long famif- 
larity with political science, as a teacher of political 
economy in Bethany College, supplied him with 
precedent and illustration, and his intimate acquaint- 
ance with the history of legislation in the old and 
new states and its effect upon the public welfare 
enabled him to judge wisely concerning the utility 
of measures which it was proposed to retain, and 
such as were presented as additions. To the powers 
of intelligent research and discrimination he added 
the gift of clear and luminous exposition of his 
views when formed, and of his work in that body it 
may be said of him, as of another, that he touched 
nothing which he did not illuminate and adorn 



3o6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Referring to him, the writer of a series of bio- 
graphical sketches of members of the convention 
furnished the press at that time, speaks as follows: 
"He has never held any political position until now, 
and for this he was nominated by both parties of his 
District. He is about five feet ten inches high and 
at once the handsomest and most courteous gentle- 
man in the body. His mind is naturally logical and 
stored with a vast fund of information gathered in a 
lifetime of study and research. His demeanor is 
always courteous, his manners affable, and his good 
temper unfailing. His voice in its ordinary tones is 
full, round and musical. His speeches are the finest 
specimens of pure English I have ever heard, and 
while his arguments are clear and decisive, he has a 
brilliant fancy and a cultivated imagination which 
furnish him with apropos illustrations with which to 
enforce his logic." 

As a member of the Committee on Finance and 
Education, he devoted attention to those subjects, 
but he found time to investigate every important 
proposition submitted for the consideration of that 
body, and his speeches formed a notable part of 
most of its discussions. The absence of any steno- 
graphic report of the proceedings of the convention, 
prevented many of them from being perfectly pre- 
served, but such reports of them as were furnished 
by the press attest the soundness of his judgment if 
they do not preserve all the reasoning by which his 
conclusions were reached. His speeches on the sub- 
ject of taxation cover the whole subject of raising 
revenue for governmental purposes, and it is curious 
to note that in his argument against the retention of 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 307 

the present clause of the Constitution on that sub- 
ject, he held that under it the current products of 
the year, although not theretofore taxed, might 
thereafter be held to be subject to taxation, and that 
thereby the most invidious of all taxes, a tax on 
labor, might be imposed; while with reference to the 
farmer it might result in a system of double taxa- 
tion, inasmuch as the elements taxed in the soil 
might be again taxed in the grain grown from the 
soil, in the ox that has fed upon it, and again in the 
money that the ox brought in the market. 

Another instance of his foresight occurs in the 
discussion over the proposed insertion of the word 
"white" in the Constitution, where he pointed out 
the results that would follow, and predicted the 
clash with the Federal Constitution which must 
arise, and which would necessarily require further 
changes in the State instrument. In the debates 
over the recognition of a liability on the part of the 
new State for a portion of the debt of the State of 
Virginia, he advocated the full recognition of any 
portion of such debt as might be equitably due from 
West Virginia, holding, 

I. That such recognition should be clearly ex- 
pressed in the Constitution, first, because it was his- 
torically true that this was a condition on which 
West Virginia had procured the consent of Congress 
to the dismemberment of the old State, and it was 
clearly a matter of good faith that the contract 
should be kept; and second, because of the legal 
principles determining the obligations of the several 
partitioners in the territorial division of a State, as 
to its indebtedness at the time of the division. 



3o8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

2. That the equitable share of West Virginia 
should be determined by first ascertaining the part 
she would have been required to pay had the whole 
debt been paid at the time of the separation by a 
State levy upon persons and property under the ex- 
isting tax laws; that is to say, that West Virginia 
should have been held as equitably chargeable with 
a part of the State debt proportional to her part of 
the taxable or assessed wealth of the State. This is 
estimated to be about one-seventh of the whole; and 
second, by crediting West Virginia with an equal 
proportional part or one-seventh of all the public 
property of the State at its value at the time of sep- 
aration. The equity and justice of these elementary 
principles of settlement v^^ere argued from the high 
ground of natural and national law, and it was 
claimed that under their thorough application it 
would be seen that West Virginia would owe but 
little, perhaps nothing, to the old State, to whom 
alone she was responsible. 

The records of the convention, such as they are, 
contain many references to other positions taken by 
him, favoring measures to prevent excessive and 
licentious taxation, to secure State and municipal 
solvency, minority representation, a permanent and 
satisfactory system of free schools, and other provis- 
ions deemed by him desirable and necessary. 

One of the ablest of Mr. Pendleton's speeches 
during the convention was upon the Eligibility of 
Negroes to Hold Office in the State. It was a mem- 
orable debate. The ablest men in the body opposed 
the making of colored men eligible to jury service. 
The majority were in favor of the restriction of all 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 309 

office-holding to the white race. Mr. Pendleton 
demonstrated in an argument of great power that 
the right to jury service was a logical and political 
sequence from the amendments of a federal constitu- 
tion, clothing the colored man with suffrage and cit- 
izenship, and that the proposed proscription of the 
negro was unnecessary, ungenerous and injurious. 
"The moment the negro was free by irresistible in- 
ference he was a citizen, and as a citizen a toter, 
and as a voter eligible to anything the vote could 
confer — eligible to office. Not to see this is to over- 
look the source in which all the powers of gov- 
ernment reside; not to admit this is to place our- 
selves in antagonism to the irresistible genius of our 
free institutions." The proposition was defeated in 
the convention, and after the adoption of the State 
Constitution, that provision was tested and sustained 
in the Supreme Court of West Virginia, but being 
appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States 
the judgment of the Supreme Court of the State was 
reversed, and following the line of Mr. Pendleton's 
aro-ument that most august tribunal affirmed his 
propositions. This speech of the President of Beth- 
any College was one of the many reasons which led 
the University of Pennsylvania to honor him with 
the degree of LL. D. 

Judge Campbell, of West Virginia, who served 
with Mr. Pendleton at this time, writes of him: "I 
recall a sermon he preached on a certain Sunday 
evening in the Presbyterian Church in Charleston 
while a member of the Constitutional Convention. 
The church was crowded with a representative audi- 
ence, many of the members of the convention and of 



310 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the legislature being present. I was a timid young 
fellow, representing at that time the county of Han- 
cock in the House of Delegates — my first experience 
in public life. I recall, after thirty years, the pro- 
found impression the sermon made. It was earnest, 
broad, comprehensive, complete. Nothing could be 
suggested as needed to round it out. I confess to 
having had a little personal pride and exaltation as 
one of the 'sect everywhere spoken against.' And 
I recall now, as he passed down the aisle on the way 
out, and I tarried to take his hand, the affectionate 
hand-clasp he gave me. Mr. Pendleton had, with 
large measure, the senatorial habit of mind, and the 
judicial temperament. He must have been eminent 
in the Senate or on the bench. Only the spoilsmen 
and little fellows in his party kept him from a nom- 
ination for Congress twent)^ years ago, in which an 
election and distinguished service would have been 
assured." 

Another description of Mr, Pendleton as a preacher 
about this time was of a sermon delivered in Cincin- 
nati, in which the writer sa^^s: "The Richmond 
Street Christian Church was well filled last night by 
the announcement that President Pendleton, of Beth- 
any College, would deliver the evening sermon. 
Pendleton is a broad-shouldered, powerfully built old 
man, with snowy beard and venerable locks, a voice 
of remarkable depth and compass, and prodigious 
vitality. He is a thorough orator, and has an im- 
pressive and commanding presence, with features 
Mosaically austere. Vigorous in his age, his eye is 
not dim, nor his natural force abated." 

On Mr. Pendleton's return from the convention 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP 311 

Tie received such an ovation as the oldest inhabitant 
of Bethany has never witnessed. The students 
formed a procession in the order of the classes with 
class banners and mottoes, and marched to Wells- 
burg and met the President at the wharf. Two 
lines were formed and the moment he landed on the 
West Virginia side of the river he was greeted with 
three cheers, the procession formed and marched to 
Bethany headed by a band of music. The welcome 
at Bethany was a most hearty and joyous one, and 
students and townspeople gathered on the Heights 
and listened to speeches by representatives of the 
College and of the citizens, and the President's 
reply, after which hundreds enjoyed the delightful 
hospitality of the Pendleton home. It was an occa- 
sion of congratulation and festivity long to be 
remembered. 

There were in Mr. Pendleton's character many 
elements of the statesman, among them an ability 
"to forecast the years," to prophesy the future in 
the sense in which the word prophet is beginning 
to be understood, as one who "inlooks and out- 
tells." His profound knowledge of human nature, 
and of the inexorable logic of events, enabled him 
to see and accept the inevitable outcome of laws and 
forces. About the time of the adoption of the Four- 
teenth Amendment, Mr. Garfield was a guest at his 
house, and the two — fast friends, though differing 
in politics — held a remarkable conversation upon 
the subject. Mr. Garfield predicted a strong Repub- 
lican party in the South, an impregnable stronghold 
in the vote of the large negro population; but Mr. 
Pendleton differed from him, and held that negro 



312 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

enfranchisement would have just the opposite effect. 
He said that it would be impossible that a superior 
race should submit to the political supremacy of an 
inferior and recently emancipated people. The An- 
glo-Saxon instinct would assert itself; the Southern 
people would band together and there would be 
* 'white rule" throughout the black belt. Mr. Gar- 
field was not convinced, but history has so effect- 
ually answered his position that now it seems almost 
strange it was ever seriously maintained. 

After his experience in the Constitutional Con- 
vention Mr. Pendleton was repeatedly urged to 
stand for office and conspicuously named for the 
United States Senate, but did not again enter the 
political field. He gave himself wholly to the work 
of education. 



CHAPTER XXV 

STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS 

In the winter of 1873, Mr. Pendleton was called 
to this responsible position. Hon. Chas. S. Lewis 
resigned the office to go upon the bench as circuit 
judge, and, because of his interest and wise judg- 
ment shown in securing a satisfactory free school 
system for the State, Governor Jacob, without pre- 
vious consultation either with him or his friends, 
appointed Mr. Pendleton to fill the vacancy. His 
acceptance involved many sacrifices of money and 
comfort and an unusual amount of labor. A new 
school law must be framed under the Constitution 
just adopted by the Legislature then in session, and 
he had the labor of preparing his predecessor's re- 
port as well as his own; but his heart was in the 
work and he did not hesitate. Accepting the posi- 
tion he went to Charleston, and during his two 
months' stay there not only made a report of the de- 
partment, but framed a school law which, adopted 
by the Legislature as it came from his hands, has 
stood without material alteration until the present. 

Of the value of his work while there, best evi- 
dence is furnished by the appreciation of those best 
qualified to judge it. His successor as Superintend- 
ent of Public Schools had been elected previous to 
his appointment to fill the vacancy occasioned by 
Judge Lewis's resignation, but four years later the 

313 



314 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

teacliers of the State, recognizing the value of the 
Pendleton School I^aw and the fitness of its author 
to aid in its administration, began the movement 
which resulted in his nomination and election in 
1876. Without instituting comparisons, it may be 
said that the free schools of the State have never 
been more efficiently supervised than when under 
his direction. He not only sought to make the 
machinery of the system run smoothly, but endeav- 
ored to infuse into those under him his own ideal of 
an educator in primary instruction. The same 
methods which he found successful in the more ad- 
vanced stages of education in molding the charac- 
ter and purposes of young men and women, he 
sought to have brought to bear upon the children of 
the State, and his efforts during his term of office 
were at all times directed to the end that the teach- 
ers of the State might recognize the full powers and 
opportunities of their positions, and that the State 
would realize the obligation resting upon it to prop- 
erly sustain and encourage the men and women by 
whose instruction the character of its future rulers 
was being formed. On one occasion when he at- 
tended a meeting of the National Assembly of State 
Superintendents at Washington, the Commissioner 
of Education, General John Baton, remarked of him 
that he was one of the most intelligent and alto- 
gether broad-minded of the representatives present. 
This period of Mr. Pendleton's life was a very 
laborious one. During the four years that he was 
Superintendent of Public Schools, the capital being 
at Wheeling, he kept a clerk in his office there, 
spent Saturday and often other days in his office. 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 315 

and carried on his work at Bethany just the same. ' 
In the vacations he traveled over the State — a severe 
task then, when there were so few railways and so 
many rough mountain roads to be gone over. In- 
stitutes were to be inaugurated and held, methods 
introduced, teachers inspired as well as instructed, 
normals to be planned. To reach the train at Wells- 
burg for his office in Wheeling and return, he drove 
the seven miles in vv^inter before daylight in the 
morning, and after daylight in the evening. He 
was sixty-three when the term of service closed, and 
much of the time in far from vigorous health. 

President Pendleton thought, and the Board was 
of this opinion, that the doing of this work on his 
part for the cause of education in the State, would 
help Bethany. It was also a fact, such were the 
money difficulties of the college at the time, that 
the president, being treasurer and paying himself 
usually last, as far as he could discriminate against 
himself in favor of the hard-pressed faculty, actually 
needed the salary of the position of Superintendent. 
The trustees took action at their meeting in 1876, 
advising President Pendleton to accept the nomina- 
tion for State Superintendent of Schools on the 
ground that his filling this position would "contrib- 
ute to the advancement of the interest of the col- 
lege." 

Mr. Pendleton's views of education are admir- 
ably set forth in his published papers on this sub- 
ject. Before the State Teachers' Association in '73 
he discussed in a most lucid and practical way the 
question, "What the Educational Interests of the 



3i6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

State Demand Shall be Taught in Our Schools, and 
in What Order." 

He held there must be ample and thorough work 
in elementary instruction. The State demands this 
above all things else. This elementary instruction 
should embrace orthography, reading, writing and 
arithmetic, geography and grammar. This should 
be strictly the curriculum of the common school, 
and the several studies should be pursued in this 
order. He lays great emphasis upon the necessity 
of reading well. "Need I dwell upon the rank and 
dignity of the art of reading? To read well is to 
understand well — to think well. To spell well we 
must see sounds quickly and accurately through 
letter-signs — to read well we must see thought 
quickly and accurately through word-signs. As in 
spelling we come to lose sight of the letters and 
only mentally hear the sound, so in reading we come 
to lose sight of the words and perceive only the 
thoughts. Good reading, therefore, is the free nat- 
ural utterance of the thought. A teacher who does 
not know this has no philosophic comprehension of 
his work as an instructor in the art of reading, and 
does not, in the high sense of the art, teach reading 
at all. Go to one of your mountain schools and 
listen to one of the reading class drawling out this: 

" 'Hence! — Home! — ye-i-dle — crea-tures! Get ye home!' 

and while you stand stultified under the stupid ut- 
terance, let my friend. Prof. Kidd, step in behind 
you and ring out in his imperial way — 

" 'Hence! Home! Ye idle creatures! Get ye home!' 

and involuntarily you and the schoolmaster and the 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 317 

school cliildren will break for the door. What is the 
difference? The one has uttered thought — the 
other was drawling out sounds. When I say, there- 
fore, our children must be taught to read, let me be 
understood as demanding more than is now dreamt 
of by many a village schoolmaster. 

''Writing is an art that needs no comment; a sort 
of certificate of a certain degree of scholarship that 
is itself a valuable recommendation. Who in this 
country can feel like a man while this brand of ig- 
norance is upon him! It must be taught early 
among the first things, even along with the alpha- 
bet; because without it that great instrument of the 
educator, the blackboard, cannot be employed to 
advantage in self-teaching. 

*'Then will come arithmetic or the art of compu- 
tation by numbers. This is an art that lies at 
the very foundation of all human progress. To 
distinguish by number is one of the first steps 
which even the infant takes in acquiring knowl- 
edge. All persons perceive as many as three, with- 
out counting, and perhaps four, but five must be 
separated, and beyond this, the necessity is still 
more evidently felt. This limitation put by nature 
upon our power to grasp at a single effort more than 
three or four objects, gives rise to the necessity of 
arithmetic. Different nations have different sys- 
tems of notation, but in nearly all, there is evidence 
that the natural scales, or those derived from the 
hands and feet, that is the number of fingers and 
toes, have been adopted — and that practical meth- 
ods of numeration have preceded the formation of 
numerical language. Generally, as in our (or the 



3i8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

decimal) notation, whicli we get from the Hindoos, 
names of numbers are formed distinct as far as ten, 
after whicli, however, they never rise so high. 
Aristotle cites a tribe of Thracians, which counted 
no higher, that is, gave no distinct names farther 
than four, while the Yancos on the Amazon stop 
short at three — seemingly from the difficulty of 
framing a word to express a greater number, 
their word for three being Poettarrarorincoaraac. 
Of course tribes so difficult in the art of numeration 
can make but little progress in the arts and sci- 
ences — and little less in the development of the 
mathematical sciences. The value and importance 
of arithmetic have often been eulogized, but never 
exaggerated. The art of calculation is the great 
instrument of success — success in the common affairs 
of life and success in higher branches of education. 
It must be taught both as an art for use, and an 
exercise for mental training. It must be a part of 
our elementary instruction, so that every child in 
the State shall be armed with its power. Let every 
pupil be trained in the rapid and skillful use of 
numbers as far, at least, as percentage— and the 
single acquisition will soon repay, in the increase of 
productive power and enterprise, more than the cost 
of our entire system of common schools. 

"Language is the distinguishing art of man. To 
use it accurately, and to interpret it correctly when 
used by others, ought to be a primary object of all 
education. The specific means to this important 
end is grammar. First we must be able to com- 
mand words, as expressing mere notions — then 
words, as expressing relation. These, combined, ex- 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 319 

press and convey our thouglits. lyanguage is not 
only the expression of thought, but it is essential to 
thought. Without it, discourse of reason would be 
impracticable. Accuracy in language is essential 
to accuracy in thinking. It is through language 
that we realize to ourselves and set forth in full and 
rounded proportion, the airy and formless creations 
of the brain. Language reduces our brain work to 
the form and permanence of mind capital, and 
builds up wealth out of the immaterial product of 
thought. 

"By all means, therefore, let us have practical 
instruction for all in the grammar of our mother 
tongue. We shall thus at once teach our children 
to think and give them the art of conveying their 
thoughts accurately and intelligibly to others. 

"I have mentioned geography as one of the stud- 
ies to be embraced in the course of primary instruc- 
tion which our State demands — and for the reason 
that to be ignorant of geography is to be shut out 
from the very first motives and guides to enterprise. 
No man can take advantage of even the most favor- 
able means for his success, so long as he is ignorant 
of their existence, or of the place where they may 
be found. 

"A knowledge of practical geography reveals to 
us the means of wealth that are about us, makes 
known the advantages, social and political, of other 
peoples, discovers objects of desire that stimulate us 
into effort to acquire them, enlarges our conceptions 
of our nature and our relations to the great system 
of the world, and thus furnishes the grandest mo- 
tives and the safest guidance both to our personal 



320 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and political advancement. Germs of great enter- 
prise, if we could know it, are often planted in the 
mind while the child is passing over his map, fol- 
lowing in imagination the white-winged vessel sail- 
ing to distant ports of Araby the blest, or delving 
with hopeful hand with the explorer after hidden 
treasures in the gold and diamond sands of Gol- 
conda. 

"So far I have spoken only of the intellectual 
training of the primary school; and unfortunately 
for the highest interests of society, it has been too 
common to consider the business of the teacher, 
both in primary and higher schools, simply in rela- 
tion to the intellectual development of the pupil. 
But educators of the highest class are beginning to 
take a wider and wiser view of the matter. They 
recognize the significance of the fact that man is 
more than a being of mere intellect, that the great 
springs of action and enterprise are in the moral 
nature — the faculties of desire and will; that these, 
in fact, are the master-powers to which the intellect 
is only the ministering servant. That the move- 
ments of society, the march of civilization, the 
progress of nations — all these, and all that is good 
or bad in them, are shaped and fashioned by the 
guidance of the intellect, but prompted and dictated 
by the desire and the will. To regulate these, 
therefore, is the highest problem of education. 
That it must be done, if done at all, in the primary 
school, is the plainest fact in connection with the 
problem. 

"First. More than nineteen-twentieths of all our 
youth get no other education than that which is fur- 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 321 

nished in the primary school. What is omitted 
here, therefore, is as to the nineteen-tweiitieths of 
the rising generation omitted or neglected alto- 
gether, so far as the provisions of our public educa- 
tion are concerned. 

"Second. It may be said, and I am aware that it 
has been said, that this part of education may be 
left to home influence, to the Sunday-school, to the 
pulpit and the general influence of the moral atmos- 
phere in which we move. I do not depreciate any 
of these influences. I welcome and foster them all. 
But they are inadequate and partial. To an alarm- 
ingly wide extent the home influence is itself bad. 
The want of this kind of education has often left the 
parents in comparative barbarism. The child's 
home is a moral Bedlam, and all its influences 
blighting to the nobleness of human nature as the 
shadow of the upas. To take him out of it merely 
to sharpen and strengthen his intelligence is only 
to arm' his vices for greater mischief. 

"The Sunday-school is indeed a hallowed power. 
God bless the benevolent men and women who labor 
in its gentle ministry, and crown their work with 
rich and ever- widening success! But how few, com- 
paratively, does it reach, and how small is the meas- 
ure of time it can command for its instructions! 
Those who most need its influence are seldom seen 
in its classes. Even in the towns and villages this 
is the case, and still more so in the country. But 
even could this benevolent agency reach every child 
in the State, what could we expect from an hour per 
week against the evil that night and day works 
upon the vitals of society? 

21 



322 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

"The pulpit does not address itself to the chil- 
dren. They are not, except in a powerless fraction, 
present to the pulpit. Not only is this true of the 
children, but distressingly also of the parents. What 
a small part of the population of this State wait reg- 
ularly upon the weekly instruction of the Christian 
ministry! Great as this power is, it does not grap- 
ple in detail and at the roots with the evil of which 
I am speaking. It does not get hold of the hearts 
of the children. This, in fact, is not its special 
mission. 

"And as to the moral atmosphere in which our 
children move, what is this but the effect of this 
kind of education of which we are complaining? It 
is as the breath of the society of which it is born. 
It can itself be no purer, and of course can make the 
children no purer, than the sources from which they 
spring. The perpetual aim of all high educators is 
to lift society out of the impure atmosphere which 
poisons the very fountains of its life, and so to purify 
its being. 

"Evidently, the primary school is the proper 
agency for this most important of all elements of a 
wise and humane education, and shall we not say 
that in addition to the studies which I have already 
named as lying at the foundation of all intellectual 
culture, special attention shall also be paid to the 
development of the moral and religious nature of 
our children? Shall we not insist that the princi- 
ples of justice, truth and holiness shall be as con- 
stantly impressed upon the heart and conscience as 
are the principles of grammar upon the intellect? 
Shall the teacher exhaust his powers and influence 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 323 

in explaining and enforcing the laws of syntax, and 
have never a word to say about the laws of God? 
Shall the regimen of grammar and the harmony of 
words be alone considered, and the government of 
the passions and the harmony of the actions left to 
lawless impulse and jarring discord? Shall not the 
teacher be supremely impressed with the idea that 
his first and highest duty is to make of the children 
committed to his care good and useful men and 
women? His school should be a little republic in 
which the pupils are trained in all that will make 
them good citizens. Honor, courage, truthfulness, 
justice, kindness, politeness, charity and piety, with 
a veneration for all that is great and good in society 
and history, that grand virtue of our nature which 
we call patriotism when exercised towards our own 
country, and humanity when widened out to em- 
brace our race — these are elements of culture which 
lift us up in the scale of civilization and make us 
great, and for these we must provide in our primary 
schools. The Old Testament must be read as re- 
vealing the justice, truth and holiness of the sleep- 
less providence with which the Great Ruler of the 
universe still governs in the affairs of men; and the 
New Testament must be read as revealing a future 
life and the righteousness and mercy of a future 
judgment before which the secrets, the virtues and 
vices of the rights and wrongs of this life shall all 
be discovered and rewarded according as they have 
been good or evil." 

It will be seen that Mr. Pendleton laid special em- 
phasis upon the culture of the soul as an essential 
part of all true education. On one occasion he had 



324 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

lectured before the Teacliers' Institute at Point 
Pleasant, a quiet little town at the mouth of the 
great Kanawha, and a dozen or more teachers were 
gathered in the hotel parlors in the evening, going 
over the subjects discussed during the day. One 
said: "You gave me a new idea of education. It is 
true I have many a time felt that education was 
something higher than teaching, but I was never 
before so impressed with the difference." "The 
part of the lecture that impressed me most," said 
another, "was that which treated of the nature and 
dignity of the soul. Little children will be dearer 
to me than ever and the sacredness of my task like 
a religious duty." "I think," said a third, "that I 
but utter the feelings of my fellow-teachers when I 
say that we would be gratified to have that part of 
the address re-read. It was so metaphysical that we 
did not retain the statements as distinctly as we 
would like to do." 

Mr. Pendleton had been showing that teaching to 
read and write and cipher is little more than a train- 
ing in art, and scarcely in any high sense a part of 
education at all; that the process by which we ac- 
quire those arts is almost as mechanical as that by 
which we learn to dance or handle the sabre. "The 
thing with which we have to deal," he said, "is the 
human soul; it is not a block of marble, nor yet, as 
some of the disciples of Locke are fond of represent- 
ing it to be, a mere blank sheet of paper on which 
we may write as we list characters foul or fair, and 
the page, when done, will be just as we have in- 
scribed it. This is not true of anything which God 
has endowed with the principle of life. All such 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 325 

things have within themselves a power of assimila- 
tion, and they grow only by that which is food for 
them and which they can digest. It is this which 
gives them individuality, and which, by the addi- 
tion of consciousness, becomes personality. Were 
this not so, then uniformity in education would give 
uniformity in character, and men of the same school 
would be as much like each other as machines of 
the same shop or vases of the same mold. 

"But man is a being of native faculties. The 
teacher neither creates them, nor can he altogether 
obliterate or change them. 'The universe,' says 
Schiller in his Philosophical I^etters, 'is a thought 
of God — an ideal mind-image realized in a creation 
which fulfilled the plans of the builder'; but the 
soul, we say, bears still more intimate relation to its 
Author. It is made, it is true, but made in His own 
image. It is grandly endowed with intellect, feel- 
ing, will. It is born under a cloud, but it passes 
through darkness to light, and has native instincts 
for the glory of its origin. It has native power to 
perceive — consciousness within, observations with- 
out. It has memory to conserve the treasures which 
it gathers by the way; power of imagination to re- 
produce the phenomena of experience and observa- 
tion, and, by plastic energy of creation, form them 
into shapes of beauty and loveliness which are to it, 
as the creation is to God, 'the realization of the 
ideal mind-image' of which they are born. 'We see 
the artist in his Apollo.' It has gist of ratiocina- 
tion, and can travel from thought to thought in 
divine discursion, and in linked relation of reason 
'rise from nature up to nature's God.' It carries in 



326 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

itself the regulative power of its own operations, 
and can lift itself above itself, and sit in awful 
majesty of judgment in its own approval or con- 
demnation. It has feelings of pleasure and pain, of 
sympathy with every form in which the Creator has 
expressed his thoughts. The universe is a delight 
because it is an expression of the one Great Father. 
Its grandeur lifts the soul up with admiration for the 
stars; its beauty charms as the voice of love; its wild 
and terrible aspects awe it into the rapture of devo- 
tion, and the sighing winds seem to echo our own 
plaint of sorrow for the lost. 

*'Here are wondrous powers of the soul, and all 
around it, speaking to it with divine eloquence, the 
many voices of nature. There is too the mysterious 
power of the will, the majesty and might of the 
soul, lifting it up into the dignity of covenanting 
even with God. Power to rise, power to fall, the 
ground of all accountability, the arbiter of eternal 
destiny, the Jupiter in the Pantheon of our powers, 
who 

" 'Shakes his ambrosial locks, and gives the nod, 
The seal of fate, the sanction of a god.' 

"And now, some materializing sciolist stands in 
the presence of this august creation, and having 
taught it to read and write and cipher, thinks he has 
educated it! 

"I^et me say further, that our faculties have a 
double quality. They are both receptive and pro- 
ductive; and the process of teaching may be either 
to fill the capacity to receive^ or to develop a power 
io produce ; or it may be so largely and wisely man- 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 327 

aged as to do both^ concurrently. No education is 
rational that is not conducted witli constant regard 
to this distinction; yet we doubt if it is often, if 
ever, in the thought of many of even our higher 
grade of teachers. The great concern seems to be 
to stuff into the mind by the shortest and the easiest 
process possible, the solid contents of so many text 
books. All difficult places must be made easy, and 
the student must be hurried over the ground, that he 
may 'finish his course and be ready for business.' 

"Now this is all right enough where the matter to 
be acquired is a mere art. I have no objection to 
any contrivance that can lessen the labor or shorten 
the process of learning to read or to write; but where 
the object of a study is to develop the power of a 
faculty, and the nature of the study is suited to its 
object, then the greater the strain to which the 
faculty is put the better. Who would think of 
thickening and toughening the thews of the athlete 
by the easy and music-toned motions of the dancing 
school! We must strain the muscles till they well- 
nigh crack, if we will have giants in the arena. So 
with the mind. It takes power to think — toughened, 
toil-enured nerve-tissue to bear the strain of pro- 
tracted and athletic study. Stuffing a capacity 
makes one learned; developing a power makes one 
great. There may be distinguished greatness with 
but moderate learning; there maybe encyclopedic 
learning and scarcely noticeable greatness. Memory 
is the faculty of learning; greatness is the full and 
masculine development of all the faculties. 

"Much learning may tend to the enfeeblement of 
power. But you ask, 'Is not knowledge power? 



328 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and are not knowledge and learning synonyms?' In 
one sense they are, but in the sense generally put to 
the aphorism, they are not. Knowledge, to be 
power, must be our own knowledge, not the memor- 
ized knowledge of another, or of many others. 
Lauda inellis dulcedinem quantum potest^ qui non 
gustaverit^ non intelligit^ says St. Augustine. 
'Praise the sweetness of honey to the utmost, he 
who has never tasted it can not understand it.' But 
knowledge which comes of experience develops the 
power that wields it, and thus becomes exceedingly 
powerful." 

"I infer," said one, "that you do not adopt the 
metaphysical system of Locke." "Locke," he re- 
plied, "was a strong-minded man — a logician, too, 
but in no true sense a metaphysician of a high 
order. The intuitional subtlety which penetrates 
below the materialistic forms of phenomena, and 
grasps the primary truths that lie behind them and 
which are the cause and law of all outward showing 
— this is the e coelo descendit gift of the metaphy- 
sician; and this Locke never had. His whole sys- 
tem is, in fact, based upon the denial of this divin- 
est quality of the soul. It was, therefore, essential- 
ly materialistic, and, in the hands of Condillac and 
others in France, was worked out to this, its logical 
result. In Locke, its highest reach and best faith 
halted at a philosophic Unitarianism. As in re- 
ligion, so in education, a false theory of human 
nature must lead to false results in practice. A 
materialistic theology and a mechanical method of 
education are both logical sequences from Locke's 
philosophy. 



STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 329 

"Doubtless, power is naturally of different de- 
grees in different souls. Equally true is it, that in 
all men it requires nourisliment and development; 
and to secure these should be the supreme end of all 
education. You ask me. How is this to be done? 
Can it be begun in childhood? I answer: It not 
only can be begun in childhood, but must be begun, 
and thenceforward carried on through the whole 
process of the mind's growth, if we would lift it up 
to ultimate greatness. And there is but one way of 
doing it. It is to call into agreeable and vigorous 
energy, not only one or two, but every faculty of the 
soul, by providing for it exercise suited to its 
strength and congenial to its taste. Along with the 
arts of scholarship, ply also, and constantly, the 
art of culture. Quench every thirst, feed every ap- 
petite, satisfy every longing of the soul, tempering 
each into proper harmony with all, and directing all 
to the ultimate end of all true living. For the 
memory, that which shall be food for the imagina- 
tion; for the imagination, that which shall quicken 
and strengthen and regulate its creative energy; for 
ratiocination, that which shall excite it to reason 
and build up the lofty structure of thought; and for 
the reason, that which shall deepen its confidence in 
the omnipotence of truth, the power of ideas, the 
immutability of the eternal laws of justice and 
mercy, the freedom of the will, moral responsibility, 
the soul's immortality, and the Fatherhood of God. 
The Book of Nature, the Book of Man, the Book of 
God, let these be the living oracles of the soul's 
daily lessons, and we shall have a method of educa- 
tion that will fill the land with wisdom and integ- 



330 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

rity, and its tiigh places with greatness and honor." 
*'Wlio is equal to these things?" said one of the 
company. 

It was agreed that the teacher's task was a high 
one, and that if our children are to be educated 
aright, educated for true moral and intellectual 
greatness, we must provide for them masters that 
understand their work. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
VIEWS OF EDUCATION 

Mr. Pendleton was a born teacher. He prac- 
ticed education in its literal sense — not to fill the 
student full of facts, but to draw out his mind. In 
the class room he would rarely allow the pupil to 
make an utter failure. He would ask question after 
question to ascertain what he did know, to aid him 
in arranging his ideas, and never gave up the hope 
of finding some information in the dullest, most ill- 
prepared student. He had a wonderful insight to 
discover the aptitude and the promise of the young 
man. On one occasion, in Washington City, he 
was introduced to James G. Blaine, then Secretary 
of State. Mr. Blaine never forgot a man or a serv- 
ice. "Oh," he said, "I know Prof. Pendleton. 
When I was a student at Washington and Jefferson 
College, he was one of the judges in an oratorical 
contest in which I was a speaker, and his vote gave 
me first place." Mr. Pendleton had been the ma- 
jority of only one to discern the talent of the man 
who afterward swayed the House and Senate and 
the popular multitude with the majesty and power 
of his utterance. 

Mr. Pendleton had no sympathy with the process 
of cramming. The object of school and college 
training with him was to make men, to develop hu- 
man nature on all sides, to fit young people for high 
and noble careers satisfactory to themselves and 

331 



332 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

useful to mankind; in a word, to help a man make 
tlie most of himself. The high and wise purpose of 
the Christian college was to mold the heart and 
character, shape the will and life, broaden, sharpen 
and strengthen the intellectual faculties. Only one 
person in fifteen hundred is a college graduate in 
this country. Still, over fifty per cent, of the lead- 
ing representatives of our government in all the 
high offices are drawn from this handful of our citi- 
zens. Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biogra- 
phy has 15,000 names, over one-third of which are 
those of college men. Only one in every ten thou- 
sand of those without college training has risen to 
eminence sufficient to have his biography written in 
this work, while of college men one in every forty 
has reached this recognition. Of thirty-two speak- 
ers of the House of Representatives, sixteen were 
college bred. Twelve of twenty-four Presidents 
were college graduates, and twenty-eight of the 
thirty-six Secretaries of State, and our great poets, 
historians, philosophers and theologians represent, 
with hardly an exception, a college training. In 
the words of Christ, the Christian college may justly 
say, "I am come that you might have life, and have 
it more abundantly." 

A maker of men was the high office President 
Pendleton filled. He exhorted his students to think. 
"Young men," he would say, "apply yourselves 
assiduously to your tasks, but neglect not to medi- 
tate. Go out in the evening alone and reflect. You 
will learn all the faster, for you will thus gain the 
power to comprehend, which is more than simply to 
perceive or to understand. Brood upon the mystery 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 333 

of the world till you see it by the light of your own 
soul, and then will it be truly beautiful. Contem- 
plate everything under its law, and in nature you 
will find sweet communion. The flowers will be a 
presence of living beauty, the babbling brooks a 
music sweeter than the blended harmonies of art, 
and these winds of autumn like the plaint of an- 
other spirit, the great spirit of nature, pouring its 
sorrow into yours, over the fall of its forest glories. 
Thus will the soul be fitted for the entrance of truth, 
great thoughts will burst upon it from the living 
fountain of lights. The answers of Urim and 
Thummim will come in colors of warm and rosy 
light and shine upon the heart watching in silence 
and hope." 

He saw a radical difference between studying and 
learning, between thought and memory, between 
power and knowledge. The want of a clear dis- 
tinction here very often makes us the dolts we are. 
It runs to waste the labor of a life and saps the very 
foundation of growth. 

*'It is a common impression that education should 
be begun m childhood. Familiar maxims have 
grown out of this common opinion of cultivated hu- 
manity. 'The child is father of the man,' 'As the 
twig is bent the tree is inclined,' and such like pro- 
verbial philosophy, is in the mouth of everybody. 
No doubt there is a nisiis of wisdom here. The nice 
question is to know precisely what it is that is to be 
begun. To repeat, 'Education is to be begun,' is to 
say nothing to the purpose. It is a mere Delphic 
oracle to be interpreted and applied only after the 
event and to every one's liking. The practice of a 



334 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

majority of the cultivated portion of mankind would 
imply that to 'educate' the soul is to put artificial 
instruments into the hands of children, and by dint 
of weariness and too often loathsome repetition and 
practice, compel them, nolens volens^ whether or 
not, to learn their names and uses, and how to han- 
dle them. 

"I fancy I see such a little fellow. He has been 
just torn from his chosen playthings, where his soul, 
'an impulse to herself,' was framing some fabric 
from 'his dream of life.' But four or five summers 
have yet bloomed upon his loving eyes, and the 
sweet sights of nature and her communing voices 
are his joy and delight. His mother earth is nurs- 
ing him, and spreads before him in her bounteous lap 
a thousand pleasures of her own, but he cannot be 
indulged in such pastimes. He must go to school. 
Right manfully he kicks, with a sort of native inde- 
pendence and love of freedom, but authority ends 
the struggle, and there he is, seated on his hard, 
backless form, with his meek little legs hanging 
down six inches below his pants and twelve inches 
above the floor, baseless as the fabric of a vision, 
but by no means such stuff as dreams are made of. 
They are real, if not very substantial, legs, and now 
most weary of hanging. His tender little back, too, 
is very tired, but the fear of the rod keeps that from 
complaining. His eyes are upon his book, poring 
over the mysterious words, but his thoughts are with 
his heart, and that is with his playthings, on the 
grassy lawn with the young lambs, chasing over the 
flowery mead the golden butterflies, or lost in day- 
dreams on some shady mound by the banks of bab- 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 335 

bling brooks and amid bowers musical with the 
songs of happy birds. Dear boy! I remember with 
the vividness of a poet's vision when I sat in your 
place. How my longing heart sighed for the wil- 
lowy streamlet where the golden-sided minnows 
played in the placid pool, or hid their dreamy forms 
in the dappled depths of the pebbly bottom! How 
ugly those Cadmean hieroglyphics looked in the 
face of such a vision! The big A's and the little 
a's, and the whole crabbed, cramped and crooked 
alphabet stared me in the face like the ghost of 
murdered beauty, till I could not bear to look at 
them. But our little boy must learn his letters; he 
must do more. Ab-abs must be mastered, com- 
bined and superadded till 'long-tailed words in osity 
and ation'' are made out, spelled and scratched out, 
and little master Wright can write the rites of Eng- 
land and write them right. 

"This, popularly ojid practically now, is to 'be- 
gin education.' I^et us see what is done. The lit- 
tle fellow, in nine cases in ten, has learned to hate 
that dog-eared book, — primer he calls it in most 
scornful ignorance of the meaning in its name; he 
has learned to hate, at least, the inside of the school- 
house; and (unless he should be a most amiable 
specimen of a pedagogue), with a sort of native 
American hatred of tyranny, he has learned very 
cordially and manfully to hate the schoolmaster. 
Here are three results of this 'begun education,' and 
let him that values them have them. Three years 
ago, that little boy was as rosy as the dawn that, 
with a bounding heart, he rose to welcome; now he 
rises with a sluggish yawn, and his cheeks are sal- 



336 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

low and pale. Three years ago, all nature was a 
library to him — in wood, mead and tangled brake 
he found society — they were a mystery he loved to 
penetrate, and the primal sympathies of his heart 
found a brotherhood in their bosom. He loved 
them, and thought it an innocent love. But another 
sweetheart has been chosen for him — that primer, 
for the sweet voices of the vale — that school-room^ 
for the metropolitan temple of the mighty universe, 
and that frowning and enigmatical pedagogue^ for 
the genial and plastic mysteries of nature. He 
never consented to the transfer; like a true lover, he 
resisted it, but he had to submit. iVnd now his 
nature has been violated. He has been crossed in 
love — his first love, too. Not only is he forbidden 
to play with his chosen one, but he must play the 
gallant and make love to another, not his choice. 
No wonder his suit is urged so lazily, so unsuccess- 
fully. His heart is not in it. His heart, honestly 
and at hearty is right cordially against it. Nobody 
sympathizes with him; therefore, like other helpless 
things, he submits to be borne along, but all the 
while bitter with the sense of the wrong he suffers. 
He becomes a dissembling Ishmaelite — seemingly 
very dutiful and attentive to books, but truly against 
every man's book, and thinking most honestly 
every man's book against him. Here are three 
other fruits of this 'begun education.' A nervous 
and enfeebled constitution; a blunted sensibility to 
the beauty and the bounty of nature; and a sense of 
wrong in the arbitrary restraints put upon him, re- 
sulting in a spirit of opposition and perversity that 
makes him a hypocrite or a rebel. Pallor, stupidity 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 337 

and perversity — what a wealth of power to begin 
with! If I thought, gentlemen, you would ever 
treat your boys so, I would pray that you might 
never hear^ as you surely v/ould not deserve^ the 
name of 'father'! 

"lean only give a sample or two of the baneful 
influences of the present popular system of youthful 
education. Its good effects are manifest. Reading, 
writing and a little arithmetic are the first three. 
Very important they are, too. Then come grammar, 
geography and astronomy enough to make the little 
Solomon acquainted with the facts that the earth is 
round and the sun stands still, for no other use to 
the boy, that ever I could see, than to teach him 
that his good friends, the five senses, are, in great 
matters, great liars, and by no means to be trusted 
at a distance! 

"Do I complain then that boys are taught to read, 
and write, and cipher? By no means. Only wait 
till the proper time. All these can be learnt in a 
few weeks, when the boy's mind is ready for them 
— all of them can be taught so gently and genially 
at the mother's knee, or in a real father's study or 
workshop, that the boy is scarcely sensible of the 
means by which the knowledge has come." 

He illustrates the distinction between knowledge 
and power. 

"Take a proposition in geometry. The proposi- 
tion itself is enunciated and the demonstration of it 
is before you. You are required to learn it. By 
close attention to the statements in the demonstra- 
tion, you follow the reasoning step by step, satisfied 
as you proceed of the correctness of each step, till 



338 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

you come to the conclusion and find it Q. E. D., 
what was to be demonstrated. Let us consider the 
mental effort in this work. There is, ist, the per- 
ception of the relations of quantity^ as equality, dif- 
ference or multiplication, //z^j-, mimis^ etc., only as 
they are stated, however, in the demonstration, or 
subsumed from other remembered conclusions, or 
from axioms; 2nd, a persistent and sequential 
fixedness of attention upon these relations, as they 
have been linked together, so as to see how the last 
link fastens to the first, through the intervention 
and connection of all the rest, and is, consequently, 
sustained by them. By the simple perception of the 
relations stated to exist, and protracted attention to 
the development of the conclusion, by a string of 
legitimate inferences, the demonstration of the prop- 
osition has been learned. I know you call this 
studying, and some of you think it very hard work. 
It is, truly, lo7ig and often perplexing work, but is 
it properly study? To study is to set thought, fix 
it, energetically determine it. It would be to dis- 
cover the proposition, to invent demonstration. 
Euclid studied^ his pupil only learns. Euclid 
thought^ his pupil only understands and re^nembers. 
What did Euclid do? He found in his reason cer- 
tain constitutive ideas or regulative laws. He made 
out a code of these. He called them 'common 
notions.' Some Aristotelizing commentator, per- 
haps Proclus, called them axioms^ as they now stand 
in the Elements. He bent his mind to these, 
studied them, tentatively worked upon them, to see 
what he could make out of them, and lo! that won- 
drous creation, his Geometry. Need I dwell longer 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 339 

on tlie distinction to make it plain? Illustrations 
will crowd upon you, from all departments of 
thought or art. A common draughtsman can take 
the dimensions of St. Paul's, draw the position, 
size and plan of all its apartments; it requires noth- 
ing but a perception of the parts, as they lie before 
his senses, and attention to their relation, but none 
but a Sir Christopher Wren could design it, combine 
the simple and pre-established laws of mechanics to 
the consummation and compass of a grand archi- 
tectural model in the mind, and thus by a wondrous 
creative projection of his own thought, embody in 
form and substance, this wonder of the architectural 
world. 

"You will have no difficulty now, either in per- 
ceiving or granting the difference between knowledge 
and power. I am aware of the trite adage, that 
^knowledge is power,' and I know, too, the author- 
ity that is given for it. But authors are often mis- 
understood, and men do wrest them to the perver- 
sion of the truth. We say, in like manner, 'a 
sword is dangerous,' but we mean, of course, when 
wielded by an arm of power. The danger is in the 
power— the sword is the passive instrument. In 
this sense knowledge is power, that is, it is an in- 
strument which enables power to actualize itself 
with greater efficiency. Power, through knowledge, 
becomes exceedingly powerful. But knowledge is 
not essentially power. There may be great knowl- 
edge and but feeble power, and conversely. I shall 
find you a very Hercules of mental power, a man 
who could bandy like foot-balls, thoughts that could 
not be crammed into a hundred common heads with- 



340 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

out bursting tbem, who did not hiow as much even 
of correct astronomy as some of our haggard little 
Solomons of ten years old, but who, notwithstand- 
ing, haven't a thought beyond their noses. What 
did Plato know of precise science, compared with 
the young Bachelor of Arts of the present day? To 
which must we award the greater knowledge^ to 
which the greater power? The one can scarcely 
write a readable paragraph — no matter how correct 
it may be in its style — so barren is it of thought. The 
other, for sixty generations, has been the wonder 
and admiration of mankind. The one will never be 
felt in influence beyond the circle of his personal 
presence, the other, 'a plank from the wreck of Par- 
adise, thrown upon the shores of Greece,' still, after 
the lapse of twenty centuries, radiates a power that 
penetrates to the profoundest depths of the human 
heart, and stretches out to the utmost circles of the 
human family. 'His line has gone out through all 
the earth, and his words to the end of the world.' 

"Now the common practice seems to go upon the 
principle that to educate the soul is to stuff it with 
statistics, and load it with learning. Application is 
the work and acquisition is the result, but thought 
has been neglected, and no power is gained. 

"Much of what we call education, and for which 
we labor and toil so much, is a positive injury to the 
mind; and this, because it prevents the growth and 
development of its power^ or perchance, oppresses 
and weakens it. It will, of course, be noted 
throughout that I mean by '■power ^^ the combining, 
originating, creating energy of the mind. The con- 
ditions of the growth of anything are determined 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 341 

by its own nature, and we have abundant examples 
in vegetable pbysiology of the development of one 
part being made at the expense or to the prevention 
of another. The analogy is complete; it is precise- 
ly so with the mind. Now, the conditions of the 
development of mental power are thinking, study- 
ing, reasoning, and this for ourselves, not after an- 
other. But this requires time, abstraction and deep 
meditation, while these again demand solitude. 
We must go out in the evening, like Isaac, to medi- 
tate, and then will thoughts, beautiful and lovely as 
Rebecca, come as upon troops of camels, to meet us 
— pure thoughts, and in bridal array, coming to 
marry themselves to the soul, and fill it with im- 
mortal love. But these are of the reason. They 
will not come while we are busy with the mechan- 
ism of logic, or trotting in the leading strings of 
pedagogues, 'be-school-mastered, be-tutored, be- 
lectured, anything but educated; receiving arms 
and ammunition instead of skill, strength and cour- 
age; being varnished rather than polished; perilous- 
ly over-civilized and most pitiably uncultivated!' 
Reason's ray is the light of all our seeing, but it 
comes not through the mist of the world. We must 
seek it upon the heights of contemplation. There 
it will meet us and make all things clear. 
"Hers is 

" 'Unearthly minstrelsy! then only heard 

When the soul seeks to hear; when all is hushed, 
And the heart listens.' 

"How can the heart be great that hath never with 
itself communed? How can the universe be under- 
stood or enjoyed by one that hath never gone out 



342 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

from the presence of its phenomnea to thijik^ aye, 
not to experiment, but to think ^ upon its laws? Ex- 
periment and observation are very good, yea, neces- 
sary tilings. They give us cognitions, but what are 
these worth without an organizing mind to put them 
together and make out their law — to arrange them, 
not whimsically, nor according to blank resem- 
blances even, but according to some mental initia- 
tive, suggested by the reason as the idea, actualized 
in nature, by the law. No one will question that the 
ability thus to overlook and to underlook phe- 
nomena, to comprehend them by grasping a princi- 
ple that explains them, is the true mark of great- 
ness. 

*'I made the assertion that much of what we call 
education is a positive injury to the mind, inasmuch 
as it prevents the growth and development of its 
power. Tendency is to prevent those mental exer- 
ises which alone do and can develop power^ by di- 
recting the time and the exertions of the pupil to 
labors which require no original thought, no exer- 
tion of creative energy, but only (almost passive) 
perception and protracted attention, and this to a 
degree that oppresses and enfeebles, if it does not 
actually paralyze, the native thought-building, sys- 
tem-making power of the soul. 

"You will, therefore, perhaps inquire, would I 
have you abandon your present course of learning 
and adopt another? Let me say, then, that for the 
purposes of study, in the strict sense of the word, 
several things are highly necessary as means or in- 
struments, and others as material. I could not say 
that in any ordinary college course, such as is com- 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 343 

mon even in the highest literary institutions in 
America, there is much, if anything, to be omitted, 
unless it be some of the idola theatri or the false 
theories that have got possession, I am sorry to 
know in many instances, of the professors, and lie, 
like so many sunken Russian boats, in the channels 
of successful thought. Logic, languages and the 
various arts of memory are all necessary to your suc- 
cess in independent and original thought, and for 
this end they should be pursued. Science, in the 
widest sense of that word, will afford you useful ex- 
ercise in the processes of method, and with mathe- 
matics, her chosen and necessary handmaid, which, 
as it is generally taught, is rather the logic than the 
science of mathematics, arm you for conquests of 
highest might. 

"It is not, then, to neglect these that I would call 
you, but to pursue them, not as ultimate ends, not 
in and for themselves, but as means and instruments 
in the hands of thought to work your way to true 
greatness. You may have them all — gorge your- 
selves with them till you become full-grown, plump 
and pampered book- worms, and the man of power, 
who, like our own Franklin, has barely tasted them, 
will laugh at you, as mere bustling, pursy aldermen 
in the empire of thought, sweep by you with im- 
perial contempt, and leave you, like any other grub, 
to batten on the refuse of others, whilst lifting his 
own majestic head on high, inter sidera, he wreathes 
from the lightning a chaplet for his brow, and chal- 
lenges the thunder to echo his fame. I would have 

o 

you consider how even one great discovery — not a 
mere upturn in plodding experiment of some new 



344 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

phenomena or unusual phase of nature, but a reve- 
lation of new light, a distinct and further step into 
the dark domain that lies like a land of night ahead 
of the van of humanity — how one such step stamps 
with immortality the brow of the hero who makes it! 
We hail him as one who has come back with good 
news from that undiscovered country from whose 
bourne hitherto no traveler had ever returned. We 
look upon him as one who, caught away by the 
muses, has been baptized in the true Helicon, and 
place him at once high among the celestials. 

' 'Pythagoras, when he had come back from his 
travels, and was asked by the multitudes who hung 
upon his eloquence what they should call him, re- 
plied, modestly, 'Philosopher' — not a wise one, but 
a lover of wisdom. But Protagoras and others were 
not content with so unpretending a title. They 
would be called Sophists, Wisdom-mongers, just as 
we say fish-mongers, as if wisdom could be bought 
and sold in the market-place like hams or herrings! 
Their distinctive character, if we may trust Plato 
rather than Webster, was to huckster wisdom. No 
wonder that on so foolish a mission they in a little 
while became mere babblers of nonsense. They 
soon received, as they deserved, the contempt of 
mankind. The School of the Sophists is no more, 
but the race of wisdom-mongers is not altogether 
extinct. You shall not stray through many stalls in 
the market till you are met by 'Proverbial Philoso- 
phy' — hung up for sale. Wisdom, assorted and put 
up in broken doses to suit all appetites and all 
diseases! I charge you, buy it not, thinking that it 
will make you wise! Wisdom must be dug out of 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 345 

your own hearts. Words have no wisdom in them 
to you till you have felt them. Only that is truly 
yours which is born of you. If your mind be flesh, 
how mortal and perishable must be its progeny! 
But if you have purified it from the dross of sensual- 
ity, cleared it for the entrance of light, that light 
which being in the world enlighteneth every man in 
proportion as he is pure, then will it blossom with 
hopes brighter than ever hung over Eden bowers, 
and ripen joys sweeter than the peace of paradise.'* 
Let such views of school and college training be 
held, and works like that of Gorst on the Curse of 
Education will be impossible. Such charges as 
A Flourishing Mediocrity, Square Pegs in Round 
Holes, The Destruction of Genius, The Greatest 
Misery of the Greatest Number, The Output of 
Prigs, Boy Degeneration, and Mental Breakdown, 
will be met in illustrations of best manhood and 
womanhood. 

At the Bethany commencement in June i8, 1880, 
President Pendleton informed the trustees of the 
college that he would not be a candidate for re-elec- 
tion to the position of State Superintendent of 
Schools. This course was made necessary by the 
resignation of Prof. C. L. Loos, who accepted the 
presidency of Kentucky University. Prof. Loos had 
served the institution for twenty-two years. He had 
also taught three years just after his graduation, 
making a quarter of a century of work in Bethany 
College. In a beautiful letter to the Board, accom- 
panying his resignation, he says: "I will not at- 
tempt to tell you what it costs me to break up my 
present relations and ties, but I cannot avoid ex- 



346 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

pressing my particular regret in parting from my 
older colleague, the President of the college, with 
whom I have so long and through such various for- 
tunes borne the heat and burden of the day, and 
always in mutual respect and goodwill." 

Mr. Pendleton cordially reciprocated the feeling 
of Prof. Loos, and held him always in the warmest 
esteem. His resignation was greatly regretted by all 
friends of the college. J. S. Lamar was elected to 
fill the vacancy. 

President Pendleton's announcement that he 
would not be a candidate for re-election to the office 
he had filled for more than three years so honorably 
to himself and so usefully to the work of education 
in West Virginia, was the occasion of generous trib- 
utes in the State press to the efficiency of his admin- 
istration. One of the leading journals declares: "If 
there is any one gentleman more than another of the 
present corps of State officers which we would like 
to see stay where he is, that gentleman is Prof. Pen- 
dleton. The position is one that requires little or 
no politics in its organization and details, but which 
does require all the culture, ability and experience 
that can be got into it for the salary. In the super- 
intendency of the free schools of the State, there is 
a field of work, visible and invisible, of vast propor- 
tions, and it requires a ripe scholar of fine executive 
Italent, with good sense, keen perception, strong will 
and plenty of energy and devotion to the work in 
hand to make an efficient officer. Three years and 
over Prof. Pendleton's administration has proven 
that he possesses all these qualities to an eminent 
degree. Therefore, his determination to sever his 



VIEWS OF EDUCATION 347 

connection with the public schools of the State is 
cordially regretted by us." 

It was while connected with the public schools 
that Mr. Pendleton was requested by the governor 
of the State to select and suitably inscribe the West 
Virginia Memorial Stone for the Washington monu- 
ment at the Capital. It may be found at the 200 
foot landing, and is a large block of white marble 
with the State coat of arms in the the center, be- 
neath the words "West Virginia," and above the 
motto, '-''luum Nos Sumus Monumentum.'^'' 



CHAPTER XXVII 
AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAI, CHAIR 

For tliree years after the close of the Harbinger 
Mr. Pendleton wrote but little for the religious press, 
but such a pen could not remain long unemployed. 
In December, 1873, Isaac Errett makes this editorial 
statement in the Christian Standard: 

"We take pleasure in announcing that President 
W. K. Pendleton of Bethany College will be added 
to the editorial staff of the Standard with the new 
year. Personally, it is a great gratification to us to 
renew the editorial ties that held us in pleasant 
co-operation for several years in brotherly labors on 
the Millennial Harbinger; and to our readers it will 
be, we are sure, a great pleasure to know that one of 
our ablest, most elegant and most learned pens — too 
long idle — is to be regularly employed for their 
benefit." 

In a subsequent issue Mr. Errett writes: 

"W. K. Pendleton is to take his place on the edi- 
torial staff and contribute regularly to the editorial 
columns. As a writer he stands in the foremost 
rank. His learning, his wisdom, his large experi- 
ence, his fine literary taste and his ripe judgment 
will enable him to minister to the intellectual and 
spiritual wants of our readers as but few are able to 
do. His long and intimate association with Alex- 
ander Campbell gave him rare opportunities to learn 
the spirit and genius of the Reformation, as well as 

348 



AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 349 

its inner history, and to comprehend its bearing on 
the religious world at large; while his own studious 
habits have enabled him to lay up rich stores of 
knowledge for the instruction of others. Having 
been once associated with him in editorial life we 
are the more gratified to announce his connection 
with the Standard from our personal knowledge of 
his ability and worth." 

January 3, 1874, Mr. Pendleton takes up his new 
work with a Word of Introduction: 

"If it were only that we are at the threshold of a 
new year, the courtesy of a hopeful salutation would 
not be an unfitting acknowledgment of the pleasure 
we feel at renewing the, to us, long familiar rela- 
tions of editor; but when we count back over the 
busy days, whose cares and toils and nervous wrest- 
lings of hope and fear left us no leisure to note the 
toiling of the hours as they passed, we find it has 
been three full years sinct we used to commune with 
a great brotherhood through the pages of the Har- 
binger; and realize, therefore, that in taking a place 
kindly tendered us in the columns of the Standard, 
we shall seem to many as a stranger needing the for- 
mality of an introduction. For, in that time, how 
many, true and dear to me, have ceased to read this 
life's pages and passed to higher knowledge; and 
how many more have risen up to claim the fellow- 
ship and guidance of the toilers in sacred literature! 
The hearts whose greetings I shall miss! May I 
hope to find their warmth of welcome replaced by 
the fraternal sympathy of those who will fill their 
places! 

"The age presses us with the demands of its rapid 



350 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

marches. We may not linger — neither in listless- 
ness nor in wonder. The railroad and the steam 
press, like the 'two men in white apparel,' chide us 
while we 'stand gazing up into heaven,' and bid us 
look upon the ripe harvest fields, and go forth, 
strong-armed reapers, to gather immortal fruit. 
Neither is there time for strife. The battles of dis- 
cord block up the way of progress. The smoke of 
their torment blinds the eyes of our understanding, 
and the light that is in us becomes darkness. The 
time of harvest is a time of joy. Her banners are 
the waving of golden sheaves of first fruits, lifted up 
with thanksgiving and praise before the Lord of the 
harvest. Would that we could catch the inspira- 
tion of the season, and utter no sound — not even the 
sound of a doctrine — that would drown the melody 
of the starry choir first heard by the watching shep- 
herds, but still echoing with the sweetness of mid- 
night music in all hearts filled with the peace and 
good will of the gospel! 

"We trust that with the growth of time there 
has been, with us, some growth of knowledge, but 
not, we hope, of such that 'puffeth up.' If constant 
and prayerful study and conscientious investigation, 
with a singleness of eye that asks only, 'What is 
truth?' are conditions that God will bless with fuller 
consciousness of his will, then we think it no arro- 
gance to say that there is no doctrine of the Bible 
that we do not better understand, and no lesson of 
the word or the life of our Savior that we do not 
apprehend with a fuller insight, because of the 
years of suffering and patience through which we 
have been striving to walk by the light of his Spirit. 



AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 351 

And yet, how defective and incomplete is our seeing. 
Enigmatic reflections of truth — obscured, as images 
seen in a mirror (I. Cor. xiii. 13) — these are all 
that we can attain to in this life. Only when we 
shall be ut him^ as he is in us^ shall we see and 
know fully and truly. It is wise, therefore, to con- 
sider our ignorance, as it is good to know our frailty. 
How much do we need to be forgiven for both! In 
nothing is the Savior's toleration of the weakness of 
our humanity more beautiful and tender than in 
his forbearance with intellectual errors^ — errors too, 
under the light of his own personal instruction. He 
called it want of faith. When Thomas refused to 
believe a testimony that satisfied all the rest, he was 
not cast off, either by his brethren or by the Savior. 
So Paul was chosen, while yet a persecutor, but ig- 
norantly in unbelief. Very gentle and loving was 
the Savior in dealing with the religiously blind. 
Only as they could bear it did he let the light of 
his knowledge fall upon their unused eyes. And 
this is a lesson of his life that his disciples have but 
poorly learned. The anathemas of the Church, and 
the dogmatism of the press, have ever been louder, 
fiercer and more proscriptive against errors of the 
head than sins of the heart. 

"It is noticeable that the articles of creeds are 
about doctrines; that the battles of sectarianism are 
under banners inscribed with formulas of faith. 
The example of the life of Christ is trodden under 
foot by the mailed warriors that clash their arms at 
the braying of a party shibboleth. Too often the 
sound of doctrine is confounded with sound doctrine; 
and unwritten creeds by force of frequent reitera- 



352 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tion become more restricted and proscriptive than 
those which have received the sanction of the coun- 
cil. Doubtless it is 'sound' to believe the golden 
rule, but it is doubtful whether it is 'sound' to 
preach it at the point of a bayonet! 

"Is not the outlook of the Church more towards 
the imitation of the life of Christ? less towards 
the hard intellectuality of Calvinian-Augustinism? 
We hope so, and feel it to be the highest work that 
is given us to do, in the present, to labor to bring all 
that love our Master to love, also, one another. But 
not by compromise of the truth; for the truth alone 
can make us one, because it is itself one. Error is 
multiform, and always mischievous. Men can never 
stand long together on error — that is, on error as a 
principle and bond of union. But in charity all 
men may stand together, even in much error. Char- 
ity paralyzes the power of error. Its afSnities dis- 
solve all other attractions, and set the heart free to 
walk in love — yet, like all other forces, the force of 
charity must work through means, and in antago- 
nism to whatever opposeth. Yes; love has her bat- 
tles, and brave soldiers and true advance with her to 
the j&elds of conquest. Courage and patience, and 
fidelity like the Savior's are in their hearts, and 
neither the curses of the Pharisees, the delays of 
victory, nor the fascinations of ambition can turn 
them from the steady and loving toils of their high 
and divine calling. 

"True charity cannot compromise the truth, for 
their ends are one. They come from the same foun- 
tain, go forth on the same mission, and return laden 
with the same fruits of victory. Nothing that 



AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 353 

drives a man from God is true chanty, and nothing 
that leads him into false ways is divine truth. I^ove 
and light walk hand in hand in the ministry of the 
Gospel, and he is an enemy of both who despises 
the voice of either. In this temper of heart and 
purpose of will, beloved readers, we come to com- 
mune with you and work with your old servants of 
the Standard during the weeks as they pass, and so 
to add what little of wisdom or of force there may 
be in us to the many ministries of good that are so 
hopefully among us: and may the blessing of God 
rest upon our labors!" 

Public Morality is the subject of Mr. Pendleton's 
first editorial. He says some strong things. "The 
old standards of public trusts have all gone down 
before the restless agony for wealth, and our high 
places are filled with men greedy for mammon and 
ready to sacrifice even honor for money." "Patri- 
otism is but little more than the love of place, and 
the public wealth the private property of the public 
servant. The demagogues of the Demos live on sac- 
rifices, and the flocks of the husbandmen must fur- 
nish the victims." "Our public morality is neither 
fashioned nor fostered by the morality of the peo- 
ple." "It is easy to see that the damning sin of 
public life is the inordinate greed of money, and 
that this again is rendered the more insatiate by the 
extravagance of public fashion. Our home life is 
plain, our public life is ludicrously ostentatious." 
' 'We need earnest remonstrance, such as only the 
divine sanctions of right and wrong can enforce, in 
order to arrest the decline of public morality. I,et 
the pulpit and the religious press address themselves 



23 



354 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

earnestly to the correcting of this frightful evil, and 
we may hope for better things. If we shall be pre- 
served against corruption, it must be by the purify- 
ing influence of the Church — the power of the di- 
vine life in the hearts of believers." 

He addresses a word "To Our Old Readers of the 
Harbinger' ' : 

"It is natural, after a long separation of any kind, 
when we again come back to our former position, to 
look for old friends. One who has been long absent 
from his native home inquires with eager anxiety, 
on revisiting the cherished spot, for the companions 
of other days; and so now, after so many years of 
suspended intercourse with my old friends of the 
Millennial Harbinger, when I resume my place as 
editor, I cannot but feel a special desire to renew 
also my communings with the thousands with whom 
for many years it was my happiness to be on terms 
of so much intimacy and confidence. I know not 
how many of these may now be readers of the 
Standard, or to what extent I may presume on the 
continuation of their good will, but I am conscious 
of a strong desire to meet them again, and cannot 
forego the impulse of my heart to send them a 
special invitation to gratify me with a revival of the 
old fellowship. I desire not to conceal the fact that 
it will be peculiarly grateful to my feelings to dis- 
cover that those who now read the Standard will 
greet it with an added interest because I am hence- 
forth to help the strong hands that have hitherto so 
ably conducted it, and that many others who are not 
now visited by its weekly issues will be induced by 



'AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 355 

the memory of other days to become its patrons and 

friends. 

"We have been frequently urged by many of the 
most honored among our brethren to revive the Har- 
binger, and to all such we say the best we can do 
for our good cause shall be done through the Stand- 
ard. We do not propose to be an idle figure-head, 
to grace or disgrace a big Co. of editors. We 
mean earnest, watchful, thoughtful work, honest as 
faith can make it, and true to the cherished purposes 
of the many dead and living co-laborers with whom 
we have so long stood in harmonious struggles for 
the restoration of New Testament doctrine and prac- 
tice. We have discovered nothing in the Word of 
God, and can discern nothing in the signs of the 
times, to induce us to draw back or aught to relent 
in the steadfast advocacy of our original plea. We 
may not, we think we do not, understand it in the 
sectarian narrowness in which it is held by a few. 
We can see neither the wisdom of the policy nor the 
warrant for the liberty which some are exercising in 
restricting the gospel of grace, in its divine catho- 
licity and freedom, by the autocratic dogmatism of 
a creed-spirit that is as narrow in its logic as it is 
cold in its charity. It is true now, as when Paul 
was yet with the church, 'We should be ministers of 
the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the 
spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
life' (II. Cor. iii.6). Even under the Jewish dis- 
pensation this distinction between substance and 
form was true. Paul recognized it as an eternal law 
of the divine judgment. 'He was not a Jew who 
was one outwardly, neither was that circumcision 



356 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

which was outward in the flesh; but he was a Jew 
who was one inwardly, and circumcision was that of 
the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter' (Rom. 
ii.28, 29). 

"But the form and the substance are, both philo- 
sophically and scripturally, united in every true life. 
The letter as law killeth, yet the letter as a revela- 
tion of grace leadeth to life. Paul does not use the 
word letter in the sense of the word of revelation. 
This is living and quickening through the spirit; 
but in isolation, taken as a mere intellectual light 
enforced or conformed to simply as a rule by which 
to escape punishment or secure advantage, it be- 
comes mere letter, and profits nothing in the divine 
life. We may thus be led by it, as dumb cattle, 
submissive to the yoke and patient under the burden 
and obedient to the thunder of command, but heart- 
less and lifeless in the service, as the ox under the 
goad. The letter pays tithes, but waits for the col- 
lector and grumbles at the rate. The spirit gives the 
heart, and anticipates the morning with its bound- 
ing gladness of service. The letter sits cautiously 
and gloomily in the corner criticising its duties and 
shielding itself with a cunning network of 'thus 
saiths'; the spirit goes abroad eager to find and 
prompt to do whatsoever is true and lovely. The 
letter is censorious; the spirit is charitable. The 
letter is a dead carcass, perfect and complete as it 
may be in its parts, but a lifeless anatomy; the spirit 
is a living form, beautiful in expression and rest- 
lessly active with the grace of divine life. 

"Evidently, the work that is needed is a restora- 
tion in form and power of the apostolic church, a 



AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 357 

New Testament ministry that takes the word of rev- 
elation for its guide, and the spirit of inspiration for 
its impulse. To separate these in theory or in prac- 
tice is to break up the bond of Christian unity and 
reduce Christianity to a theory, a philosophy, a 
mere scheme of salvation, without the power of life. 
The readers of the Harbinger, to whom now we es- 
pecially speak, will recall the steady earnestness 
with which this essential characteristic of Christian- 
ity was ever insisted upon by its great editor. We 
remember with v\Ahat earnestness he was vv'ont to say, 
'I have no confidence in any instrumentality, ordi- 
nance, means or observance, unless the heart is 
turned to God. This is the fundamental, the capital 
point; but with this every other divine ordinance is 
essential for the spiritual enlargement, confirmation 
and sanctification of the faithful.' On this grand 
position let us plant ourselves with renewed stead- 
fastness, and labor to bring our movement on to 
still further perfection." 

Mr. Pendleton writes upon many themes: Elders 
Not Officers; Injurious Questions; The Protestant 
Episcopal Reform; Progress in Religion; The One 
Baptism; The True Issue in the Baptismal Question; 
Difficulties in Churches; May Women Speak in the 
Church? Deacons, etc. The withdrawal of W. C. 
Dawson, of New York, from the church in Novem- 
ber, 1874, on account of differences of opinion on 
the authority of tradition and forms of worship and 
organization, led Mr. Pendleton to give the readers 
of the Standard a .valuable series of articles on these 
topics. He is surprised that one not born under 
the venerated shadow of tradition nor trained to bow 



358 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

his neck to prelatic authority, but whose eyes had 
seen the truth untinted by patristic prisms, and in 
the htinen siccum — the dry light of reason — beheld for 
himself the unadulterated apostolic order, should be 
able to satisfy his judgment with the indefinite and 
contradictory utterances of tradition on the subject 
of church order and infant baptism. He has no 
harsh words or feelings to utter, but takes advantage 
of the occasion to consider the ground upon which 
Mr. Dawson justified his action. There are eighteen 
of these editorials, covering the whole question of 
tradition, its authority and its relation to Scripture 
and the matter of infant baptism, episcopacy and 
apostolic succession. These articles are well worthy 
of preservation and circulation in more permanent 
form. They furnish a scholarly and completely sat- 
isfactory treatment of a vexed question. 

A kindred series of able contributions from his 
pen runs through several months in the Standard 
columns in 1880 and 1881 in the form of a written 
discussion with James Crystal on the proposition, 
"Infants are Proper Subjects for Baptism," in which 
Mr. Pendleton proved altogether too much for the 
learned Presbyter. He has also a hand in the dis- 
cussion of differences between the Baptists and Dis- 
ciples with James W. Wilmarth, of New Jersey, in 
1878. 

Other matters treated by his pen in the editorial 
columns are Conscientialism; The Reward of Good 
Works; The Five Points of Arminianism and the 
Per Contra of Calvinism; The English Remon- 
strance; Righteousness and Justification; Wit and 
Ignorance on Baptizo; The Source and Stand of 



AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 359 

Christian Doctrine; Training and Teaching Chil- 
dren; Purgatory; The Resurrection of the Dead; 
The Preparation of the Heart; The Assurance and 
Source of the One Hope; The Despair of Heathen- 
ism, and the Hope of the Gospel; Ritualism in 
England; the Name Christian; The National Evil, 

etc. 

Mr. Pendleton's controversial articles are models 
of fairness and dignity, remarkable for their learn- 
ing, breadth of vision, reverence for truth, clearness 
and justice; his general contributions show his wide 
information, his progress! veness, his large sympathy 
with all worthy advanced views, and services for the 
church and humanity; but it is when he falls into a 
tender strain and we get glimpses of his heart 
that he really appears at his noblest and best. 
What could be sweeter, more touching and beautiful 
than this little tribute to a child, Theodore F. 
Loos, the youngest son of his co-laborer in the col- 
lege? The boy rested November ii, 1873, and the 
dignified, scholarly President writes: 

"He had nearly completed his seventh year, full 
of hope and health and blessed promise of life, when 
suddenly fatal disease seized him and in a few days 
he folded his little hands upon his breast and fell 
into the sleep from which there is no earthly awak- 
ening. We recall, living or dead, but few such 
boys as our dear little Theodore. His nature was 
calm and serene as a quiet morning. The light of 
peace was in his face and a gentle manner graced 
his every action. His look of greeting was like a 
benediction, and his little heart seemed ever flowing 
out in love to all about him. The ripe graces of 



36o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

cultured years seemed native to him so that we used 
to call him 'a born gentleman.' He was in word 
and in deed a perfect creature of righteousness, ex- 
alting others to purity and wisdom and exemplify- 
ing in his own sweet ways how sometimes at least 
'Heaven lies about us in our infancy.' Surely the 
blessed hand of the Savior rested upon our little 
Theodore while he was with us here on earth and 
now has lifted him gently to the heavenly rest. In 
his last moments he was a peacemaker and a com- 
forter, believing that all was done well — all for the 
best, and looking off to the new joys to which he 
was passing with his little brother and sister, who 
had gone before him to his heavenly home. We 
have laid his little body, still beautiful in death, 
away in the cold earth, but his liberated spirit in 
another sphere is kept for the fulness of joy in the 
bosom of Abraham," 

Many of Mr. Pendleton's choicest lessons to the 
brotherhood in this new editorial experience are 
found in the form of simple answers to querists. 
Instead of a question box the paper had a depart- 
ment called the "Querists' Drawer," and from this 
were drawn forth queries, new and old, covering all 
matters of doctrine and practice; some wise and some 
otherwise, and the answers are often in the happiest 
vein of this gifted writer. 

In all departments of the paper Mr. Pendleton 
rendered his full share of service. It is probable 
this was the busiest period of his busy life. The 
college was in sore straits, and he was its president 
and treasurer, with most of the burden upon his 
shoulders of providing for its needs. He was State 



AGAIN IN THE EDITORIAL CHAIR 361 

Superintendent of Public Schools and crowded with 
the cares whicli that office entailed upon him. The 
Christian Quarterly, edited by W. T. Moore, was 
then being published, and he was one of the asso- 
ciate editors, contributing regularly to its columns 
articles that involved much labor in preparation. 
His correspondence v/as heavy and the calls for ser- 
mons, lectures, missionary addresses and public 
services of every kind were incessant and from 
every quarter. Much of his work was done while 
others were sleeping, and for twenty years he 
averaged but five hours' sleep out of every twenty- 
four. A less vigorous constitution could not have 
endured the strain. A life with such demands could 
have but little time for elegant leisure. A career of 
such usefulness deserves the orratitude of his fellows. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

PRESIDENT GENERAL CHRISTIAN MIS- 
SIONARY CONVENTION 

The spirit of missions is the life of the Church. 
From its organization, in which he had so large a 
part, Mr. Pendleton was a loyal friend of the A. C. 
M. S. His profound faith in its purpose and un- 
swerving devotion to its interest were shown to the 
day of his death. Three notable missionary ad- 
dresses are published in the Standard during the 
period of his editorial service. October 20, 1874, he 
delivered before the General Convention at Cincin- 
nati the Quarter Centennial Address. Organized in 
the Queen City in October, 1849, ^^ met here to cel- 
ebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary. He refers, in 
opening his subject, to the greatest hearts of the 
brotherhood of that day who had after careful con- 
ference organized the society. He quotes D. S. 
Burnet, who presided on that occasion, from a letter 
to Alexander Campbell informing him of his elec- 
tion as President: "When Brother Pendleton ap- 
peared in the convention and informed us that your 
absence occurred in consequence of illness, we 
doubly sympathized with you in your affliction, 
which was also a disaster to us, as it deprived the 
convention of your society and counsel. The con- 
vention has requested me to assure you of their 
sympathy and prayers, a duty most genial to my 
feelings, the more especially as I can in the same 

362 





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PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 363 

communicatiou contribute to your joy by announc- 
ing a happy issue of our meeting. About five 
thousand dollars was raised in money and pledges 
for our various enterprises, but especially for Bible 
and missionary societies, which shared about equally 
in the munificence. I never knew so fine a meeting. 
It lasted about one week, and filled us full of joy 
and love. The representatives from abroad amounted 
to about two hundred." 

He speaks of Mr. Campbell's satisfaction over the 
organization of a missionary society, and gives his 
views expressed in the Harbinger in 1842, '44 and 
'45 on the subject, and then traces the history of 
the organization and its work. He discusses the dif- 
ficulties and opposition encountered and the varying 
fortunes of the society, the talk about organizations, 
schemes, ecclesiastical courts, missionary crusades of 
rival secretaries, the holy horror of some of the 
elect over "the ushering in of this Moiistrum hor- 
rendimi^ informe^ ingens^ cut hi7ne7i adeviiptum.'''' He 
calls the muster roll of the no^ ' ? men that shared in 
the origin of the society and ar ■" "^^ *t be an apos- 
tasy, where has been the orthc . f the Reforma- 
tion, and who has represented it? His character- 
izations of these men are striking: 

"Look at this body of men — this host ot evangel- 
ical volunteers — marshaled to fulfill the Savior's 
orders to preach the gospel to every nation. There 
is John O'Kane, the trumpet-voiced evangelist; Jas. 
M. Mathes, the acute and vigilant editor; J. B. 
New, the embodiment of ancient order; George 
Campbell, the warm-hearted exhorter; BHjah Good- 
win, the 'wise, practical preacher'; and L- H. 



364 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Jameson, poet and sweet singer — all of Indiana; and 
wlio shall say they did not represent the piety, the 
intelligence and the soundness of the brotherhood 
from whom they came? Was Ohio misrepresented? 
David S. Burnet, himself among the greatest of mis- 
sionaries — an orator, a gentleman, and early and 
late zealous in all that contributed to the growth and 
piety of the Church — was he a 'blind leader of the 
blind'? The Haydens, mighty in the Scriptures, 
persuasive in speech, and leaders in sacred song, and 
Moss and Green and Watkins, all skillful to use the 
sword of the Spirit to attack or defend; were they 
untrue to our primitive plea and perverters of the 
law according to the Christian Baptist? And Ben- 
jamin Franklin, 'Senior Wrangler,' the scarred vet- 
eran before whose set lance so many sectarians have 
fallen — was he inclined to Progressionism or aspiring 
to be a secretaiy? Did these men, early famed 
among their people, misrepresent or mislead Ohio? 
"Time would fail me to speak of J. T. Johnson, 
the Chevalier Bayard of the pulpit in Kentucky; 
the devout Morton; John Smith, logician and wit, 
and of a conscience for veracity that would not com- 
promise the truth even in an anecdote; and P. S. 
Fall, scholar, theologian and philosopher; have 
there been braver, truer, safer and sounder men 
among us than these? And were they not, with 
their compeer, George W. EHey, pillars and sup- 
ports of the Missionary Society from the first? 
When, in May, 1850, these grand men, with many 
others, their peers in piety, zeal and earnest fore- 
sight in matters connected with the prosperity of 
Zion, met in I^exington and organized 'The Ken- 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 365 

tucky State Meeting,' with a 'President, Vice-Presi- 
dent, Secretary, Treasurer and a Board of Mana- 
gers,' and resolved to aid by their co-operation the 
General Missionary Society at Cincinnati, did they 
mean to betray the Disciples of Kentucky into the 
hands of an ecclesiastical court, or to interfere with 
the proper independence of the churches?" 

He tells of the society's financial ups and downs, 
and unders and overs, of its missions and missiona- 
ries, of the Louisville Plan, born in an upper room 
of Winthrop H. Hopson's home, where the Commit- 
tee of Twenty wrestled all night long for the "in- 
spiration and wisdom and wit" which they needed. 
He ascribed the failure of the plan to the one single 
amendment made to the report of the committee by 
McGarvey and Burnet; that is, the change in the 
financial plank of their platform, as follows: "But 
this recommendation is not to be considered as pre- 
cluding a different disposition of funds when the 
church contributing shall so decide" — a provision 
emasculating the article of all its practical force as a 
rule of co-operation, and allowing churches to come 
into the organization and act as members, but with 
full liberty to decline any share in its work. 

Mr. Pendleton closed with these happy sentences: 
"Mr. President, and Brethren in Convention: — I 
have trespassed tediously upon your patience. Con- 
sider me as the muse of history straying among the 
monuments of twenty-five years of our missionary 
work, and excuse me if I have not been able to give 
you a respectable story of them in the span of an 
hour. I have given you the ship's reckoning, that 
you may see where she is, what seas have been 



366 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

sailed over, and what spread out yet before us. You 
have seen some of the men that launched her, and 
who, through the years and amid the storms and 
calms of her course, have stood upon her deck steer- 
ing her way and working her rigging, hoping and 
praying through the long night, and waiting for the 
dawn of morning. If I have been compelled to 
speak of the rocks against which she has sometimes 
struck, remember that I am only faithfully reporting 
the story of her log book; and if occasionally one of 
the crew appears in mutiny, remember that the 
shame is his whose is the deed, not his who records 
it. Let us turn from the indifferent, the hostile and 
the false, and rejoice to-night in the illustrious roll 
of the true that have fallen and the brave who are 
yet battling for the right; and while we stand upon 
this narrow isthmus that separates the verdicts of 
the past from the duties of the future, let us lift our 
eyes up over the wide seas yet before us, and spread 
our sails for the farthest shore to which the Gospel 
may yet be borne. Let us push our prows into all 
ports, and wherever there is a people 'sitting in 
darkness and the shadow of death,' let the shout go 
up, bursting through the valleys and sounding over 
the hills — 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, 
buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
out money and without price' (Isa. Iv.i)." 

At the yearly meeting of the G. C. M. C. in Rich- 
mond, October 17, 1876, Mr. Pendleton is President 
of the society, and delivers the annual address. It 
is an able and fervent deliverance on "The Preacher, 
his Place and Agency in the Spread of the Gospel, 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 367 

the Growth of the Church," and concludes with an 
appeal which should be forever remembered: 

"We lament the poverty of our treasury, and say, 
'Oh, that the Lord would send us money!' But the 
want of money is not the heart of the difficulty. It 
is our poverty in prayer — -effectual, fervent prayer. 
God has given us this lever with which to move the 
spiritual interests of the world, and balanced it upon 
the fulcrum of our faith, but we refuse to lift it up 
and work it. Give our preachers the constant, 
effectual, fervent prayers of 500,000 true hearts, and 
the money will come, and the Gospel will be 
preached, and the world will be turned upside down 
again with a Pentecostal outpouring of converting 
power. It is an undeviating law of the ministry of 
the Spirit that no means shall be blessed that are 
not consecrated by prayer. They are of the earth, 
earthy, till lifted up on faithful hearts for the unc- 
tion of the Spirit. How little do we realize this in 
our solicitude for the success of the preacher. We 
read his reports in the papers, we listen to his 
troubles, we discern his weakness, we count up his 
converts, and we say, 'He will not do! We will 
take no more stock in him!' And we never once 
say, 'Lord, help him!' We see him standing, like 
Moses on the hilltop, with the rod of God lifted up 
over the battle with Amalek raging below in the 
valley of Rephidim, but when his arm grows weary 
and the rod of God is lowered, we run not to him, 
like Aaron and Hur, to hold up his hands and to 
cause Israel to prevail. 

"Brethren, to know the cause of our weakness is 
to know the remedy. The Savior has given it into 



368 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

our hands. L^et our hearts be as one in constant, 
fervent prayer for the success of our missionaries, 
and all else will follow. What we truly pray for we 
will surely work for and pay for, and so, adding the 
double fruit of faith — prayer and works — 'God will as 
surely add his blessing." 

In May, 1877, the convention holds its semi-an- 
nual meeting in Cleveland. Mr. Pendleton presides, 
and discusses "The Church — its Divine Origin, Rep- 
resentative Authority and Mystic Embodiment of 
the Ministry of the Redeemer," 

In October of the same year we find him again 
President of the convention which meets in St. 
Louis, and he delivers here the annual address. 
Alluding to the Louisville Plan, he says: 

"The plan adopted at Louisville is theoretically a 
very good one. If it has failed it is merely because 
we have gone on practically under the delusion that 
it could and would work itself. The exhortation to 
all was 'go to work on the new and scriptural plan, 
based upon the authority of the churches.' We did 
go to work, but not missionary work. We went to 
discussing the plan, and it was not long before it 
was found that it was a very dead and impotent 
thing. We were dissatisfied. It is told in the 
fables of ^sop how, in the days of old, when the 
frogs were all at liberty in the lakes, and had grown 
quite weary of following every one his own device, 
they assembled one day together, and with no little 
clamor, petitioned Jupiter to let them have a king to 
keep them in better order and make them lead hon- 
ester lives. Jupiter, knowing the vanity of their 
hearts, smiled at this request, and threw down a log 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 369 

into the lake wMch, by the splash and commotion 
it made, sent the whole commonwealth into the 
greatest terror and amazement. They rushed into 
the water and under the mud and dare not come 
within ten leaps' length of the spot where it lay. 
At length one frog, bolder than the rest, ventured to 
pop his head above the water and take a survey of 
the new king at a respectful distance. Presently, 
when they perceived the log lay stock still, others 
began to swim up to and around it, till by degrees, 
growing bolder and bolder, they at last leaped upon 
it and treated it with the greatest contempt. Dis- 
satisfied with so tame a ruler they forthwith peti- 
tioned Jupiter the second time for another and more 
active king. . Upon which he sent them a stork who 
no sooner arrived among them than he began laying 
hold of them and devouring them one by one as fast 
as he could, and it was in vain that they endeavored to 
escape him. Then they sent Mercury with a private 
message to Jupiter beseeching him that he would 
take pity on them once more; but Jupiter replied 
that they were only suffering the punishment due to 
their folly, and that another time they would learn 
to let well-enough alone and not to be dissatisfied 
with their natural condition. 

"Brethren, are we not repeating the generic folly 
of the frogs? We were clamorous for a plan to 
govern us, and the I^ouisville plan fell with a great 
splash in our midst. First it filled us with admira- 
tion. We thought and cried e coelo descendit — it 
has come down from above. We gazed with awe at 
it from a distance, and expected it to move from the 
waters and come to us freighted with the wealth of 

24 



370 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the Orient. It was to be to us scripturality, apos- 
tolicity, ecclesiasticity, evangelicity and money 
bags! It was to float us into all imaginable heathen 
ports 'From Greenland's icy mountains to India's 
coral strand'; and we were to have a good time 
under his royal majesty, 'The Louisville Plan.' So 
we waited for awhile; and our royal Log lay stock 
still. It gave no sign of doing anything, terrible or 
wonderful for good or for evil. And then a few who 
had at first stuck their heads deepest under the mud 
began to pop up and peep and mutter and make 
names at the Plan, and finally drawing nearer they 
leaped irreverently upon it and chuckled with de- 
light that after all it was only a log! — a dead log! 

"And now we are croaking for something else; 
and I fear the Stork is already among us, bestriding 
us with his long legs, and with his cormorant stom- 
ach devouring our energy, and benevolence, our 
missionary life! How shall we escape?" 

He argues in this address that the church and the 
preacher are the Lord's forces — the preacher to go, 
the church to send — and concludes, "We are, I 
trust, gathering up our strength for another grand 
step in progress. We are preparing for the opening 
ways of Providence, and will not be wanting when 
the fullness of time shall come. Let every church 
be ready with her offering — every preacher be shod 
with the preparation of the Gospel, and free access 
be opened up to the nations — the peoples at home 
and abroad who sit in the shadow of darkness and 
the region of death — and who shall put limits to the 
growth, of the church, the triumphs of the Gospel! 

"We live in hope, we work in faith, we wait for 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 371 

the blessing — trusting in Him who ever walks with 
his people and leads them into paths of righteous- 
ness and peace." 



CHAPTER XXIX 

TAI.KS BY THE WAY 

By all odds, tlie most entertaining and useful of 
Mr. Pendleton's many contributions to the Christian 
Standard during the seven years of his connection 
with that journal, were his papers under this head. 
Every conceivable subject he discusses in a familiar 
way in these talks. Sometimes it is the story of a 
trip in the interest of the college, or of missions: 
then a homily or a theological essay; sometimes 
a charming description of natural scenery; then a 
playful treatment of some one of the many follies of 
mankind. Now it is a pleasing write-up of some 
church convention; and' again, the profound philo- 
sophical discussion of some vital question which is 
agitating the public mind. This week he is exhort- 
ing the brethren with all the gravity and Scripture 
argument of the preacher of the gospel; next comes 
a bright literary paper on books or some secular cur- 
rent topic. To-day it is political economy; to-mor- 
row a prose poem. Sometimes he has all sorts of 
people speaking their parts in his discussion: 
Brother Parton and Brother Wise, Brother Kritus 
and Brother Nott, Brother Oldham, Brother Thomas 
and Brother Subtil, Brother Paxton and Brother 
Nailor, Brother Cyril, Brother Peters and Brother 
James, Mr. Felix and Mr. Senex, Dr. Abelard and 
Sister Nea, Dr. Erasmus, Brother Scotus, Brother 
Godwin, Brother Greathead and Brother Poster; 

372 



TALKS BY THE WAY 373 

again he is the only speaker. Whatever the theme, 
the treatment is strong and lifelike, cheery and 
uplifting. 

He writes of Church Independency, and for three 
weeks has all his imaginary characters participating 
in the study of this important matter. He next 
takes up the subject of Providence and Prayer, and 
describes a journey he has taken on the Ohio River 
in a time of flood, and draws beautiful and profound 
lessons from the condition of the homes and gar- 
dens and households along the swollen stream. He 
is to-day in a group of teachers, dealing v/ith the 
Soul and its Education, hearing and answering 
questions. Next he gives an account of his journey 
to Kentucky and tells of Maysville and J. B. Briney, 
and, with Briney as a text, representing the stirring 
pastor, he discusses lazy preachers and unemployed 
preachers. Meeting here some old Bethany stu- 
dents whose hair is changing, he thinks if the boys 
are aging, he can but exclaim of himself: 

"Ktieu fugaces, Postume, Postume, 
Ivabuntur anni; nee pietas moram 
Rtigis et instanti senectae 
Afferet indomitaeque morti"; 

and he gives an English version which he made of 
these lines of Horace forty years before. 

"The fleeting years, Postumus, flow fast away; 
Nor can our prayers incessant, for long, delay 
Furrowing wrinkles and hastening age. 
And Death, indomitable in its rage." 

He describes the country round about, the corn 
fields dark as thunder clouds, the air laden with 
their fragrance, the tobacco fields, hay fields, pasture 



374 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

fields all pouring forth their rich treasure in exuber- 
ant fullness, the ride behind a pair of black trotters 
to Mayslick. 

In another talk Mr. Pendleton gives the story of 
the Mayslick District Convention. He was here 
seventeen years before with Mr. Campbell, soon 
after the burning of the college. "Our gifted and 
true-hearted young Brother W. J. Loos" is pastor. 
*'We were gratified to see the high place in the 
esteem and confidence of the brethren which his 
Christian nobleness, high talents and earnest piety 
have won for him." Loos presides and Ricketts, 
Graham, Briney and Wiles do the preaching. There 
is little work done, but much talk over the plan. 
"I am curious to know," says Mr. Pendleton, "how 
a missionary convention that has little or no mis- 
sionary work to report could get along without the 
scapegoat of the Louisville Plan on whose head to 
lay the sin of omission of which they are unwilling, 
frankly, to confess themselves guilty. In company 
last summer with my friend Judge Black, of Penn- 
sylvania, I was asked by a lady how I accounted for 
the unusually cool weather. I frankly answered 
that I did not know how to account for it, and the 
Judge facetiously inquired why I 'did not lay it upon 
the Gulf stream.' As is the Gulf stream to all mys- 
teries in meteorology, so is the Louisville Plan to 
our failures in missionary work. One is the subter- 
fuge of scientific ignorance and the other the hid- 
ing place of a miserly covetousness." He thinks 
the failure is not in the plan, but in those who 
should work the plan. Whoever devised a plan 
that could work itself? He mentions many of the 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 375 

preachers in a most kindly way and describes the 
large assemblies and the exercises of the Sunday- 
school children. 

Next Mr. Pendleton visits Paris, Kentucky. Pas- 
tor Sweeney is away on leave, and he preaches in 
his place. Here he enjoys the hospitality of John 
T. Hinton, and meets Mrs. Tubman, Mrs. Kenning- 
ham and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas; the latter by her 
enlivening conversation relieves his "Mondayish ex- 
haustion and lethargy." The hemp harvest is on; 
he tells about it and pictures the splendid country 
homes that open their doors to him in this blue- 
grass Eden. This is in October, 1875. 

In the next talk Mr. Pendleton is eight hundred 
miles away from Bethany at Bristol-Goodson, Ten- 
nessee. He gives a vivid description of his trip from 
Washington City through Virginia. He still sees 
the scars of the irrepressible conflict — Bull Run, 
Manassas, Cedar Mountain. The old red sandstone 
fields round about Manassas Junction look as if 
stained by the blood of battle, and their barren 
breastworks, yet unleveled by the plowshares, turn 
up their ragged ridges like unhealed wounds to the 
scorching sun. The vast forests of immemorial oaks 
and wide fields of whispering pines once skirting 
Bull Run were cut away to light bivouac fires or to 
open up spaces for strategic marches, and now the 
tangled copse of a few summers' growth covers the 
desolate waste. Above them appear solitary chim- 
neys, monuments of homes in ashes, but with no in- 
scriptions to tell who once dispensed their hospital- 
ity. He pictures the journey through the Piedmont 
country, the Adamic tint of Charlottesville mud, 



376 LIFE OF W. K. PENJ3LETON 

Monticello and the academic groves of the univer- 
sity, then the sweep of the Blue Ridge and the fine 
farming country at its base, and the sixty-two miles 
to Lynchburg, the Peaks of Otter, "their intense 
blue, shaded into the richest velvet purple, under 
the red light that flushed all the western sky," the 
valley beyond the gap, the New River and its deep 
and rocky canons. 

In his next talk he gives the history of the Bris- 
tol-Goodson Convention. He misses the venerable 
Coleman and Bullard and Shelburne, men of the 
heroic period of the Reformation, the living repre- 
sentatives of a day and a struggle that are rapidly 
growing historical. J. Z. Tyler is here, J. M. Shel- 
burne and L. H. Stine. Stine is a diligent student 
of the Scriptures and an industrious worker in the 
ministry. Tyler has a directness and zeal that are 
very engaging. He is a young man of deep convic- 
tions of truth and duty, and does his work with such 
earnestness and force as to give strong assurance to 
his hearers both of his own sincerity and the truth 
and importance of his message. He is a genial 
companion, prudent in conversation, warm in his 
friendships, practical in management, full of fervor 
in his pastoral work, and studiously provident in all 
his public labors. He names also Millard, Fergu- 
son, Hamaker, Maupin, Barker and many others. 
He is impressed with the zeal and piety of these 
men, but pained to learn of the very meager support 
they receive from the churches. He suggests it is 
in large measure the fault of the preachers that they 
are not sustained with a more liberal hand — faithful 
and persistent teaching on the great duty of contrib- 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 377 

uting to the necessities of those that preach the 
Gospel would not, could not, be despised by people 
professing to take the Word as their guide and coun- 
sel in all things pertaining to faith and practice. 

He mentions with gratitude his hosts, and de- 
scribes a Sunday evening when he sits with others 
"under the shade of the trees, and the peace of the 
quiet sunset rested on valley and mountain as far as 
the eye could reach. Purple and gold robed the 
far-reaching ranges and invited the heart out into 
the infinite depths of their beauty. How much of 
the imagery which reveals to us the loveliness of 
celestial things is painted by these earthly colors! 
The rainbow tints bring down the hopes of a higher 
life into our exiled hearts and fill them with the 
reconciliation and peace of the Gospel." Mr. Pen- 
dleton has a generous word to speak for the colored 
brethren of the district who also meet here at the 
same time and number nineteen hundred communi- 
cants, and for their leader, H. B. Hankel. This is 
in November, 1875. 

In his next talk he tells of the Piedmont district 
meeting of the same year. He is again in his native 
county, Louisa, and the clans gather at the court 
house or county seat. Among old scenes and friends 
he writes currente calamo and con amove. He is 
with Judge Lane and wife, but distributes himself 
among the homes of Brethren Kent, Hunter, Chiles, 
Thompson, Jones and Cutler. In this meeting he 
listens to able and impressive sermons from Lucas 
and Tyler. John B. Cary is here and a host of old 
friends. Of course he praises the women. One 
thing touches him deeply: "In a corner of the 



378 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

churcli, on one side of the pulpit, my attention was 
attracted by a comfortable couch spread in one of 
the pews. This was strange, and I inquired what it 
meant. I was told that a venerable uncle of mine, 
infirm from years and delicate health, had been ex- 
pected at the convention, and that our loving- 
hearted Sister L had done this to make him com- 
fortable and to enable him to attend the protracted 
sessions of the business meetings in which she knew 
he took so deep an interest. This was something 
more than a cup of water, and, done as it was for a 
disciple, shall she not have her reward? We cannot 
repeat the miracle of enabling the feeble to rise up 
and carry his couch, but we can mitigate the infirm- 
ities we cannot cure, and smooth by the gentle min- 
istries of Christian love the rough places of a 
brother's pilgrimage. Blessings on the gentle hands 
that reach out to soothe any affliction of body or 
mind! They work a good work, and, as of the 
woman who poured out the ointment on the body of 
Jesus, let it be told as a memorial of them." 

In concluding this talk he says: "We have spent 
the summer vacation of the college almost entirely 
in the field. We have traveled by rail and water 
between three and four thousand miles; have seen 
much to admire, and met everywhere a welcome that 
filled us with encouragement and hope. The heart 
of our great brotherhood is one. There is but little 
sympathy with any spirit of discord that seeks to 
hinder, with its envious croakings, the usefulness of 
our public representatives. Small-hearted men, 
sour-natured men — retired from service by silent 
consent, because of their utter want of sympathy 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 379 

with the spirit of Christ — will find that there is but 
small chance of rising into Christian esteem by the 
un-Christian cynicism with which they watch for 
faults in their brethren, in which to fasten the fangs 
of their criticism. Their gratitude is the thankful- 
ness of the Pharisee — that they are sounder than 
other people; their zeal is the fire of the partisan — 
that burns for opinion's sake; their knowledge is the 
inflation of conceit that puffeth up — not the love 
that edifieth; and their fellowship is the sympathy 
of strife that divides — not the harmony of the 
Spirit that unites in the bond of peace. From such, 
the brethren will silently turn away. They will 
withdraw themselves, saying it is written, "Beware 
of the dogs, beware of the evil-workers, beware of 
the concision." 

Prejudice and Forbearance is the next scene in 
which several of his imaginary characters take part. 
Life and Materialism is another, in which his talkers 
discourse of deep things. Then comes "The Bible 
in Schools and Colleges," a very practical talk en- 
gaging a half dozen of his best conversationalists, 
and closing v^ith the emphatic words: "Would we, 
then, after all, enforce religion and the Bible by the 
authority of the State in public colleges and univer- 
sities? By no means. We can not consistently do 
so. If we must have institutions, at State expense, 
let Christians submit to bear their part of the bur- 
den of taxation necessary for their support; but for 
themselves and their children, let them provide a 
better way. Let them found institutions in which 
godly men, fit to teach alike religion, letters and 
science, both by precept and example, shall con- 



38o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

stitute the faculties, and to these commit the in- 
struction and training of their sons. The extrava- 
gance, the dissipation, the vice and the skepticism 
that are bred and fostered in colleges and univer- 
sities where God and the Bible are not honored, are 
too fearful and common to allow any man of con- 
science and religion to commit his son to the peril 
of their influence. Hitherto, many of our higher 
public institutions of learning have escaped the hue 
and cry against the Bible, but the day is passing. 
The conflicting spirit of infidelity and irreligion will 
soon force its demands upon all State institutions, 
and the only refuge of Christians will be in colleges 
and universities of their own, in which they will be 
free to worship God and study the Bible, and cul- 
tivate the religious nature according to the dictates 
of their own conscience and with none to make them 
afraid." 

Now he turns aside to deal with "Halichas and 
the Rabbis," and Brother Oldham and Sister Nea, 
who by the way is the only woman he ever intro- 
duces into his talks, discuss warmly the very attrac- 
tive subject of Christmas Dinners, and incidentally 
Progression, Tradition, and other matters. Kritus, 
Levi, a converted Jew, Nott, Peters, and Paxton are 
the other participants. 

The centennial year dawns, and our next talk is a 
timely one on this topic. Mr. Pendleton had been 
appointed by the Governor of his State and also by 
the Church to aid in the representation of their in- 
terests at Philadelphia. This talk is to answer the 
question: "Can Christians Improve the Occasion in 
any Way Profitable to the Church?" Confirmation 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 381 

is tlie next subject whicli brings the counsellors to- 
gether about their round table. Sister Nea brings 
up this discussion and she replies in a later talk to a 
long letter on the question of Christmas Dinners 
addressed to her by "An Old Disciple." And now 
the conference sits seriously in a number of succes- 
sive talks on The Tradition of Confirmation, and 
Ivawyer Senex and the Episcopalians get into the 
circle, and a number of others that make things live- 
ly and interesting. Following these conversations 
are several on missions, in which many speakers 
have their say. 

A talk, May 27, 1876, is about a western trip to 
Cincinnati and Henderson, Kentucky. At the for- 
mer place he stops with W. T. Moore and describes 
the New Central Church, and he visits the Standard 
office and its busy editor and then goes on to Hen- 
derson. One can never tell how much preaching he 
does, for he always mentions what others are doing 
and modestly refrains from giving any account of 
his own labors. At Henderson he visits old friends 
and relatives, the Barrets, Dades and Overtons. 
Among other things here he remembers with pleas- 
ure the call of the colored minister of the Baptist 
Church, Brother Norris, and regrets he could not 
accept his invitation to preach to his immense con- 
gregation. Now comes a series of Talks on Dr. 
Merrill and Eis, Romans vi. ;2,-6. All his talkers 
chime in, and the discussion is a learned and vigor- 
ous one. 

Settlement of Church Difficulties, Thanksgiving, 
Church and State, Books, Papers and Editors, The 
Lord's Supper Not a Sacrament, Soundness of Head 



382 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

and Soundness of Heart, Divers Baptisms, Paul's 
Baptism, The Baptism of Cornelius, An All-sided 
Religious lyiterature, The Fruit of the Spirit, Eis 
Metanoian, Baptism into Repentance, Paradise and 
the Promise to the Thief, The Worth and Study of 
the Scriptures, Political and Spiritual Economy, 
The Coming of the Lord, Seeing and Not Seeing, 
Hearing and Not Hearing, Saving Faith, The Use 
and Abuse of Dogmas, Christianity a Creed and a 
Life — are some other topics that from time to time 
engaged the best powers of Mr. Pendleton's Talk- 
ers. It is of great interest to follow him in this 
series. 

"Amongst the Arts connected with the elegancies 
of social life in a degree which nobody denies," says 
DeQuincey, "is the art of conversation. Let a man 
have read, thought, studied, as much as he may, 
rarely will he reach his possible advantages as a 
* ready man' unless he has exercised his powers 
much in conversation — that was Lord Bacon's idea." 
If in any social grace Mr. Pendleton seemed to excel 
beyond others, it was the grace of conversation. 
No one could be readier with the epea pteroenta of 
Homer. Whether using the pen or the tongue, 
whether on the platform or in the social circle, all 
recognized him as a master of speech. His charm- 
ing personality impressed itself wherever he went. 
His conversation was never an alloquium^ as De 
Quincey charged upon Coleridge — a talking to the 
company — but a colloquium^ a talking with the com- 
pany. As attentive as a listener as he was delight- 
ful as a talker, he became at once the center of any 
circle and drew out its best and happiest intercourse. 



PRESIDENT GENERAL CONVENTION 383 

Not every great or learned man has this power. Of 
Goldsmith it is said, "He wrote like an angel and 
talked like Poor Poll." Dante was taciturn or 
satirical and Milton unsociable and even irritable 
when pressed by the talk of others. Descartes, 
whose habits were formed in solitude and medita- 
tion, was silent in mixed company. Ben Jonson 
used to sit silently and "suck, not only his wine, 
but their several humors." Addison "when among 
strangers," says Pope, "preserved his dignity with 
a stiff sort of silence." On the other hand. Gibbon 
and Fox, Burke and Grotius, Curran and Coleridge, 
Leigh Hunt and Carlyle were noble talkers. 

As charming an hour as one could find in a life's 
journey was when James A. Garfield, Judge J. S. 
Black and W. K. Pendleton got together. One who 
has sat in such a circle could never forget it. This 
rare gift in the President of Bethany College made 
his "Talks by the Way" a choice contribution to 
the literature of the times. 



CHAPTER XXX 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN 
QUARTERLY 

From 1869 to 1876 W. T. Moore edited at Cincin- 
nati this excellent journal. It is safe to say that for 
wise editorial management, for the ability and learn- 
ing of its contributors, for the timeliness and vigor 
of its articles, for the thoroughness and usefulness 
of its book reviews, for general intellectual and 
mechanical make-up and widespread literary and 
religious influence, it was superior to anything of 
the kind ever issued by the Disciples. Lard's Quar- 
terly is remembered, the Quarterly Review, the new 
Christian Quarterly and other ventures, but the 
Christian Quarterly for dignity, efficiency and quar- 
terliness has not been surpassed. During its whole 
career Mr. Pendleton was associated with Mr. Moore 
in its editorial management and contributed to its 
columns some of his best work. 

For the first and second volumes he wrote articles 
entitled, The Connection Between Baptism and the 
Remission of Sins, and The Doctrine of Scripture as 
to the Relation of Baptism and The Remission of 
Sins. In the second of these papers, after clear and 
exhaustive exegesis of Scripture passages and discus- 
sion of Greek prepositions, he declares: "Should 
any one conclude that this doctrine, which makes 
baptism a formal condition of pardon, places a limit 
upon the free grace of God, and ask, What right has 

384 




WASHBOARD PALLS. 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY 385 

man to do this? we might retort the question and 
ask, Does not the making of faith an instrumental 
condition of justification equally place a limit upon 
the free grace of God? Or, again. What right has 
man to say that God shall not limit himself if he 
chooses so to do? 'Who art thou, O man, that an- 
swerest against God?' But the question is a 
sophism. We are not bound to say, nor do we say, 
God forbid that we should say, that none but the 
baptized will ever be saved. Infants die without 
faith, and vast continents of human beings have 
never heard the Gospel; and what shall become of 
all these, and some even in Christian lands, almost 
as destitute of privileges and light as they, I thank 
God is a question not for me to decide. It would 
appal me to think that baptism stood between them 
and the free grace of God. My duty is to preach 
the Gospel as its Author has delivered it to me and 
leave the rest to him: he will do all things right. 
But the true question is this, not, do we limit the 
free of grace God? nor yet, has God limited himself? 
but, has he limited us? We say yes; he has — in 
kindness and mercy has he done so. He has not 
left us to say lo here and lo there, to seek for salva- 
tion in visions and dreams and fanatical fancies of 
inward operations, delusively interpreted as the sen- 
sible work of the Spirit in our regeneration; but he 
has entered into formal covenant with us, given us a 
definite symbol and seal of pardon, a sacrifice of 
grace in which he will meet us, and give us assur- 
ance of the remission of sins and bestow upon us as 
our Advocate and Comforter the Holy Spirit to abide 
with us ever; so that 'not by any works of right- 
25 



386 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

eousness whicli we do, but according to his mercy 
doth he save ns by means of [dia] the bath of re- 
generation and renewing of the Holy Spirit.' To 
his name be praise forever!" 

"Origin of the Human Soul and Anthropology" 
is the title of a lengthy and interesting article by 
Mr. Pendleton in the volume for 1871. He treats 
all speculation with respect to the origin of the 
human soul under three theories: Pre-existence, 
Creationism and Tradutionism. The kindred sub- 
ject of Anthropology he regards as essentially a 
metaphysical question, but on this account inti- 
mately connected with theology. Man is the sub- 
ject of Christianity. It is for him objectively, and 
in him subjectively. As a revelation from his 
Author it must be adapted to his nature. To un- 
derstand this adaptation it is as important to have a 
correct knowledge of man as of a system of grace 
which is designed to save man. No man can make 
much progress in explaining God's ways to men 
without some philosophy of human nature. But 
such knowledge is metaphysics. Man is the proper 
study of man. Know thyself. Consider thine own 
heart. What are these maxims but exhortations to 
study metaphysics? He discusses man, beginning 
with a trichotomy, the threefold division recognized 
in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, body, soul and spirit, 
and examines at length the positions of the Greek 
fathers, the Augustinian Anthropology, Pelagianism 
and Semi-Pelagianism, and in closing says: "The 
history of this long controversy teaches us some 
important practical lessons. The questions them- 
selves, interesting as we must admit them to be, 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY 387 

are, nevertheless, not questions of express Scripture 
teaching, but speculations of purest and deepest 
metaphysics; they are, too, questions about which 
we cannot hope that men will ever come to think 
alike; about which the greatest thinkers have hon- 
estly differed, without hindrance to their faith or 
their piety, and which will oscillate up and down 
the scales of orthodoxy with the systems of meta- 
physics which may, from time to time, prevail in 
the colleges and universities. Especially is it to be 
noticed, too, that they are questions which excited 
little or no controversy before the time of Augus- 
tine; which are too recondite for the great masses of 
the people to whom and for whom the gospel is to 
be preached, and which, therefore, can neither be 
regarded as a distinctive part of Apostolic Chris- 
tianity, as it was practically presented under the 
suggestive guidance of the Holy Spirit, nor made, 
without an utter disregard of all authoritative tests 
of faith, in any formal sense, a criterion of Christian 
fellowship," 

In 1872, in the July number of the Quarterly, Mr. 
Pendleton has a strong paper on The Doctrine of the 
Atonement, a subject which stands with the ques- 
tion of the Trinity for metaphysical intricacy and 
subtlety, and is intimately connected with it in its 
ultimate conclusions. It is important, he tells the 
reader, to remember that Jesus Christ was not the 
propounder of doctrines. He was a revelation — the 
founder of a religion — not the author of a dogmatic 
theology, but the author and finisher of faith. In 
relation to the past his revelation was something 
altogether new, and in relation to the future some- 



388 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

thing altogether perfect. On the one hand, there- 
fore, it is not to be explained by any antecedent 
ideas of which it is simply a development or deduc- 
tion; nor, on the other, is it to be complemented or 
made perfect by any additions. As a life, it evolves 
itself by its own law and conditions, and is to be un- 
derstood and explained by its own elements which 
are divinely given, and must be received as given, 
by faith. 

In the development of this subject he goes largely 
into the realm of patristic literature — a field where 
he is thoroughly at home. Coming to the period of 
the Lutheran reformation, he says: "Man was con- 
templated, not simply as the passive, forensic bene- 
ficiary of another's merit, but as himself also an ac- 
tive agent in the appropriation of the divine grace, 
without which, indeed, he could not be justified, but 
which, nevertheless, waited upon the condition of a 
grateful voluntary reception through faith on the 
part of the sinner. These were among the first steps 
toward the introduction of the Reformation. When 
it came we find the Protestants taking position on 
the subject of the Atonement, in the main, with 
Anselm and Aquinas, while the Romanists agree 
generally with the doctrine so subtilely and power- 
fully elaborated by Duns Scotus. The Reformers, 
however, felt that the Anselmic soteriology was alto- 
gether objective. It considered the great work of 
the atonement and its consequent justification sim- 
ply and only with reference to the attributes of 
God; it carried the doctrine no further than to define 
the relations of the sacrifice of Christ to these attri- 
butes. The Reformers already in Wyclif and Wes- 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY 389 

sel had begun to consider it in its relation to man, 
how the sinner came into the blessing of the atone- 
ment. In short, they turned their attention to the 
subjective side of the question, and this led at once 
to the consideration of faith and justification: the 
act in and by which the work of God through Christ 
is appropriated unto salvation. Faith was not a 
procuring cause, but yet a cause — an instrumental 
cause. It has no piacular or atoning efficacy. It 
simply apprehends and appropriates the blessing. 
'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, 
and with the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion.' Upon this act of faith justification follows, 
the subject is pronounced just, absolved from eternal 
punishment, only, however, on account of the blood 
of Christ through which alone, as of merit, there 
comes redemption. 

"From these elementary principles follows, log- 
ically, the great practical doctrine of active obedi- 
ence. Christ's sacrifice was not simply the passive 
obedience of suffering a penalty; it was the full, per- 
fect, complete, active obedience of fulfilling the 
whole law. He not only fulfilled the law in the 
sense of obeying perfectly all its precepts, but piac- 
ularly also in the sense of paying to the utmost the 
penalty of its violation. There is, therefore, no 
condemnation to them that are in him. By this 
Protestants have ever tested the evangelicity of 
sects. No recognition of Christ's sufferings that 
does not embrace both of these cardinal features in 
the scheme of human redemption is regarded as 
orthodox. 

"Socinianism in all its phases fails to embrace 



390 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

these essentials of a true doctrine of Christianity. 
They see in the sacrifice of Christ only the death of 
a martyr which ought to induce others to lay down 
their lives, confirmation of divine promises, or the 
necessary transition to his glory. With more or 
less emphasis and prominence to the one or the 
other of these views of the sufferings of Christ all 
unevangelical sects stop short. The grand ideas of 
perfect obedience rendered to law and full piacular 
suffering in payment of its penalties — these are 
wanting in all these philosophic (?) schemes of the- 
ology, and the want is fatal. With much of truth 
in them, they omit that which alone makes Christ 
truly a redeemer. They are of the earth, earthy." 
Dogmatism and its Cure is Mr. Pendleton's title 
in the Quarterly for October, 1873. "Dogmatism — 
the word is cynical in sound, and the thing is cynical 
in nature; so much so that unlearned etymologists 
have not unfrequently nor unnaturally imagined that 
there is something doggish in the root of it, and that 
when the apostle exhorts the Philippians to 'beware 
of dogs^'' he intends a kick at dogmatism. But even 
an unfledged Greekling knows better than this. It 
is of no such ignoble origin." He defines dogma 
and dogmatism, treats scientific dogmatism and Dar- 
winism as an illustration of it, and discusses theo- 
logical dogmatism, which he thinks is often the 
merest superstition, the "will- worship" of Paul. 
He contends that Scripture truth can never be at 
war with theologic truth, and when the dogmas of 
the scientists and of the theologue clash, there is 
error in one, it may be in both. "Amid the din and 
the dust of dogmatic strife nature and the Bible 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY 391 

both still raise their heads, standing together im- 
pregnable in their divine harmony — the one the 
work, the other the Word, of God. I love and be- 
lieve them both, and have no fear, whatever record 
may leap to light, that either will ever be put to 
shame." 

He handles the dogmatism of refinement and 
fashion in church life, and contrasts it with vulgar 
dogmatism. Of the latter, he declares, "It^ is 
sharply and vigilantly hostile to liturgies and choirs, 
read sermons and all sorts of printed manuals, ex- 
cept such as editors and their free contributors give 
us in ephemeral weeklies; to educated preachers 
with white hands who quote Greek and Hebrew and 
wear gloves and walk with silver or gold-headed 
canes; to paid pastors who milk the goats and starve 
the lambs; to organization and missionary societies; 
to architecture, particularly Catharine-wheels; to 
dim religious lights, particularly stained glass; to 
instrumental music, particularly the 'ground-out 
sort'; to altar scenes and decorations, particularly 
crucifixes and wax candles; to the 'order of the 
clergy,' particularly such as are called 'Reverend'; 
to priestly vestments, particularly gowns and white 
cravats, and whatever else it scornfully calls 'tog- 
gery: These all it regards as so many disguises of 
anti-Christ, and, like the rough Douglas, greedy for 
the look of majesty, flourishes its arm and cries, 

" 'Now by my sword, I will kill all his coats; 
I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece, 
Until I meet the King!' 

"Doubtless the reader has seen and heard Individ- 



392 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

iials of this species. They prate much against 
pride, but with a rough arrogance that it is hard to 
imagine to be born of humility. The weapons of 
their warfare, too, are by no means spirituaL They 
hate with a carnal unction that is absolutely ugly. 
They persecute for the smallest differences with a 
bitterness and injustice surely never prompted by 
love nor valued by conscience. They resort to 
measures, too, sometimes, which are scarcely as re- 
spectable or manly as the old schoolboy freak of 
'barring out the schoolmaster' for holiday. And 
sometimes the most fantastic conceits are magnified 
into idols and tricked out for worship," 

He gives some wise suggestions as to the cure of 
dogmatism. "The evil is both of the head and the 
heart. Narrow abstractions or broad unanalyzed 
generalizations — these are the intellectual causes of 
dogmatism. Evil passions, uncharitableness, self- 
conceit, wilfulness — these are the moral causes of 
dogmatism. The remedy for both, so far as they 
can be remedied, is in a broad, full, all-sided manly 
culture. And this culture must not be of the intel- 
lect alone. The 'tincture of the will' must be of 
Divine light. Hues as from heaven must rest upon 
all our seeing. The heart must be made good; for 
out of it proceed the worst fruits of dogmatism. 
Neglect the passions, give them unbridled freedom, 
and the nature will run into shameless profligacy, 
degrading debauchery, bestial licentiousness, and 
society become a lava-bed of intrenched violence, 
scheming treachery and lurking for blood. Allow 
the will to become a law unto itself, and by idola- 
trous self-exaltation to put itself in the place of God, 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY 393 

and to say there shall be no other gods beside me — 
and 5'ou nurse the demon of a dogmatism that ^will 
create a solitude, if necessary, that the iron rule of 
its tyranny might have peace." 

Over the fireside, primary school, academy, col- 
lege and university, in these consecrated places, 
over the entrance and upon the walls, and reflected 
from the hearts of the students, he would let the 
motto ever stand, "The master light of all seeing," 
Reverence for God and Charity for Man! 

"By What Name Shall We Be Called?" is the 
title of an elaborate discussion by Mr. Pendleton in 
the Quarterly for January, 1876. He treats certain 
names as too general — Disciples, Saints, Believers, 
Brethren; then terms too specific, as Baptist, Meth- 
odist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, etc., and asks, "Is 
there no name that the Scriptures use that is at once 
significant of our essential character, comprehensive 
enough to embrace all allowable diversities and de- 
grees of opinion and faith, and specific enough to 
limit the extent within the requisite conditions of 
evangelical fellowship? We think there is, and 
hesitate not to say that it is the name 'Christian.' " 
He argues that this is the scriptural name of the fol- 
lowers of Christ and that the one comprehensive and 
specific designation of the body of Christians is 
"The Church of God." 

Perhaps the ablest contribution to the Quarterly 
during the whole period of its publication, certainly 
the most felicitous, thoughtful and sympathetic of 
Mr. Pendleton's articles, is in the number for July, 
1874, and is entitled "The Immortality of Plato and 
of Paul." It is a noble paper in the writer's best 



394 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

vein. It would mar its beauty to attempt any con- 
densed statement of it here. It gave the very finest 
opportunity for the play of all the fine powers of the 
author's mind. We close with an extract. Speak- 
ing of the resurrection of the body, he says: "We 
are, perhaps, too much disposed to disparage matter. 
Gross matter, corrupt matter, insensible matter, 
inert matter, base matter, — these and like expres- 
sions of scorn show the light in which we commonly 
regard it. But we should correct this irreverence 
when we think upon the mystery of the incarnation 
and its incorruptibility, the glory of the transfigura- 
tion, the immortality of the resurrection. These 
facts ought to teach us how divine a thing matter 
may become. It is sin working in it that we should 
loathe; it is the miserable bondage of corruption that 
we should long to put off; it is the dishonor of the 
curse at which we should blush. Cursed for man's 
sake, will it not be glorified in his resurrection? 

"Even in its subjection to corruptibility, how 
marvelous are the possibilities of change and adapta- 
tion which it reveals! Consider that lump of ice. 
It is matter — dead, cold, solid, inert. We change 
its conditions: apply to it heat, and in a little while 
it is water — a liquid floating gracefully upon the 
slightest pressure, with scarcely sensible cohesion of 
parts, and clinging with fondness to every inviting 
surface. It rises upon the air in apparent freedom 
from gravity and sleeps invisible in its ample folds; 
or, gathering into pearly drops, paints the arch of 
hope upon the brow of the threatening storm. It 
fringes with silver lining the curtains of the sky, 
and hangs the drapery of green and azure and gold 



ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY 395 

about setting suns. Raise the temperature still 
higher, and it bursts into gas — oxygen and hydrogen 
— the one the food of fire on which it glows with in- 
tensest fervor, melting the granite of the eternal 
hills; the other, the lightest and the most inflam- 
mable of all things known to chemistry, flashing 
into flame at the touch of the slightest spark, and, 
in mixture with its stronger brother, exploding with 
a power rivaling the roar and force of the thunder- 
bolt; and then, as if exhausted by the mighty re- 
action that inflicts the blow, subsiding into the 
harmless, pellucid drop from which it was born. 

"Need Vv^e stumble at the rich promises to be real- 
ized in the resurrection body? We want to enjoy 
our whole nature — body, soul and spirit. We can 
not bear that any part or power shall be lost. We 
want to enjoy the whole universe-— the heavens and 
the earth. We can not bear to be shut out from a 
single star, or to lose the pressure of one hand that is 
dead. We want to live in conscious knowledge of 
God, and all that he has made for us; and the Savior 
promises all through the power of resurrection. Our 
spiritual body, moving with will and thought swifter 
than the flash of the morning light, shall be ubi- 
quitous as knowledge, and all-embracing as love. 
With sweeter than Memnon music shall it thrill at 
every touch of the Father's breath, and burn, in 
light and love, brighter and deeper than the sera- 
phim in the worship of his presence. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXXI 
A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGIvE 

The period of Bethany life from 1871 to '81 was 
one of unusual strain. Had it not been for income 
from installment notes for current expenses under a 
plan suggested and carried out by the president in 
1875, tlie college must inevitably have closed. The 
unwise undertaking of building Commencement 
Hall on borrowed money had much to do with creat- 
ing a debt that became burdensome beyond measure. 
At the June meeting of the trustees in '71, a deficit 
is reported on account of faculty and janitor of 
$5,109.59, and the sum of $14,700 borrowed to com- 
plete the Hall. The permanent productive fund is 
stated to be $80,000, which could not be made to 
yield over $10,000. Among the seventeen graduates 
this year are W. S. Errett, G.J. Ellis, G. M. Kemp, 
R. T. Walker and B. T. Blanpied. This was the 
first class graduated in the new Commencement Hall. 
Robert Graham made the address at the dedication 
of the Hall, and James A. Garfield was present, and 
other distinguished friends and alumni. 

Mr. Pendleton's report as treasurer for '73 
showed an outlay of $17,000, over half of which 
had been borrowed from the permanent fund — a 
course voted by the board the previous year. It is 
stated by the auditing committee that unless some 
means be devised to lessen the outlay and increase 
the endowment, the latter will have to be diminished 

396 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 397 

every year by using some of it for current expenses, 
but they did not see bow the outlay could be les- 
sened without impairing the usefulness of the work. 
At this meeting the president recommends the in- 
troduction of a ministerial course to lead to the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Letters, and presents the course 
of study as outlined by the faculty. This recom- 
mendation is adopted, and President Pendleton and 
Prof. Loos are instructed to divide between them 
the teaching in "the School of Sacred Literature" 
in the ministerial course. Also at this meeting an 
order is passed to proceed to the purchase of books 
for the "Bishop Library." There were ten who re- 
ceived degrees at the close of this session, among 
them E. D. Barclay, R. H. Wynne, C. W. Franzeim 
and F. M. Oglebay. 

President Pendleton's report for 1873 states that 
he had introduced a bill in the State Legislature to 
provide for free education in Bethany College This 
bill was subsequently defeated. The report thus sets 
forth the financial needs of the institution. "Much 
as there is to gratify us in the present condition of 
Bethany College, we ought not to disguise the fact 
that there are two defective features which especially 
embarrass its operations. These are the inadequate 
number of professors and an insufficient endowment. 
The first of these can only be remedied by provid- 
ing for the other. An enlarged endowment then, 
we may say, is the prime want of the college. Can 
the wisdom of the board, will its zeal rise to the 
greatness of this question, and at once release the 
college of the clog that hangs so embarrassingly 
upon its progress in the work to which it is conse- 



398 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

crated? The productive endowment of tlie college 
is actually less now than it was four years ago — with 
the addition of a debt — laigely above any provision 
made for its payment, and the very interest of which 
has to be met by income that some years since was 
appropriated to the payment of the faculty. That 
the financial policy of the college in creating this 
debt has been unwise is now painfully plain. Some 
substantial advantages have been gained, however, 
and the course of wisdom is to make these still 
further efficient by a speedy provision for the em- 
barrassment which they have cost us. It would be 
well to urge upon every member of the faculty the 
duty of doing what he can during the approaching 
vacation in this behalf. Something may be effected 
in this way. But this will not be enough. Some 
more efficient and persistent effort must be made, 
even though it be at a temporary sacrifice of other 
permanent interests of the college, for this is a vital 
point which, if neglected, all must fail by a slow, it 
may be, but a finally fatal and inevitable exhaustion 
of our very vitals. I urged upon you at our last 
meeting the constant tendency to reduction in our 
financial support for the last few years, and must 
beg you to excuse me that I now renew my earnest 
solicitations on this subject. I feel it with all the 
deeper anxiety from the fact that my official relation 
to it imposes upon me so large a share of its respon- 
sibility, while the other duties which I owe to the 
college are such as to make it impossible for me to 
adopt or carry out any hopeful plan for its relief. 

"The exhausting drudgery of instructing by lec- 
tures and teaching three daily classes in the college, 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 399 

with the early and late incidental cares of my posi- 
tion, make it impossible for me to give the thought, 
or to take the freedom, which are necessary either to 
the conception or the execution of such measures as 
are necessary in working the college out of its finan- 
cial difficulties. Were this my work I should not 
despair; but while something else is, I cannot be 
held to be responsible for not doing what I do deeply 
feel ought to be done, and earnestly pray may be 
done, and speedily. As things stand I am free to 
say to the board that the obligations of the college 
oppress me like the sense of a personal debt, for the 
payment of which I was powerless to make even an 
effort to provide. I shall rejoice to be relieved of 
this anxiety. 

"The interests of the college — its hold upon those 
on whom it specially depends, both for students and 
pecuniary aid, depend largely upon the cultivation 
of a constant and familiar intercourse with the peo- 
ple. To neglect this is, in turn, to be soon neg- 
lected ourselves. Feeling this to be so, and in har- 
mony with the resolution of your honorable body 
passed several years ago on this subject, I have 
attempted, as far as it has been compatible with my 
duties as one of the regular teachers in the college, 
to attend the public assemblies of the friends of the 
institution, and so cherish their good opinions and 
kindly feelings toward us. Accordingly, I attended 
the annual convention of our Missionary Society in 
Louisville, Ky., in October last; and, having had the 
hope held out to me that if I would attend the State 
Missionary Convention in Richmond, Va., I might 
procure a donation of a thousand dollars to the col- 



400 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

lege, I went also to it in November last, and was not 
disappointed as to the promised donation. In the 
month of January I made a short visit of a few days 
to Latimberville, Ohio. I was informed by a friend 
that Brother Robert Kerr, of that place, who had 
given a pledge of ten thousand dollars to be paid at 
his death, was dissatisfied v/ith the result of an ex- 
change which he had made with our financial agent 
of some Mt. Vernon Academy stock for some Corry 
Machine Company stock, and that he was disposed, 
in consequence, to avoid, if he could, the payment 
of his promise. I thought it proper to visit him to 
disabuse his mind of his misapprehensions in that 
matter. I have reason to think that the time was 
judiciously spent. In these several trips I was ab- 
sent from the college, in all, sixteen college days. 

"The month of February I spent at Charleston, 
the capital of the State. In my intercourse with 
prominent men of the State last year as a member of 
the Constitutional Convention, I had been led to be- 
lieve that the Legislature might be induced, if prop- 
erly approached, to give us some aid, and, accord- 
ingly, I resolved to make the trial. Meantime, a 
vacancy of two months occurred in the office of 
Superintendent of Free Schools, and I was invited 
by the Governor to accept the position. The open- 
ing seemed to favor the purpose I had already 
formed, and I accepted the very heavy labor for the 
brief time allotted for it of preparing the State report 
of Free Schools, and also a new common school law, 
which I was requested to do by the joint committee 
of the two houses of the Legislature. While engaged 
in this work I prepared and introduced a bill pro- 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 401 

viding for free education in Bethany College for one 
student from each county in the State in considera- 
tion of ^3,000 to be annually appropriated to the 
college by the Legislature. My duties here would 
not allow me to remain to see the bill through to its 
passage, but on my return Mr. A. Campbell, one of 
your honorable body, readily and generously under- 
took to go to Charleston and give it the attention 
necessary to secure its adoption. Through his con- 
stant vigilance and great influence with the mem- 
bers of the lyCgislature, it was put through the 
Lower House by the flattering majority of 39 to 15. 
It went to the Senate, passed its first reading, but 
was left upon the calendar, unacted upon, by the 
adjournment of Legislature till next October. 
Though we feel quite hopeful of its final passage by 
the Senate also, it will be essential to its success 
that the same vigilance and zealous attention which 
has heretofore been given to it shall be secured for 
it again in October next. I recommend, therefore, 
that you especially and earnestly request Mr. Camp- 
bell to renew his efforts in this behalf when the 
proper time comes, as the official consent of your 
honorable body to the provisions of the bill will be 
necessary to make it effective. I recommend to 
you, also, to pass an order accepting the provisions 
of the bill should it be adopted. 

"I cannot close this report without expressing my 
high gratification at the earnestness and efficiency 
with which every professor in the college has dis- 
charged his duties. The honorable board has rea- 
son to be proud of the faculty to whom they have 
intrusted the management and instruction of the 

26 



402 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

college. I present to you, as a part of my report, 
their several reports made to me of the work done 
in their respective departments. Lest you may not 
find the time to have these reports read to you, I 
must mention that Prof. Dolbear has devised several 
original methods of exhibiting some of the wonder- 
ful properties of sound vibration which are at once 
an honor to the institution and a credit to the in- 
ventive ingenuity of his mind. He will present 
these results of his work to the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science this sum- 
mer, and so give additional fame to the college. 

"Both Prof. Dolbear and Prof. Crenshaw are clam- 
orous for increase of apparatus. The one wants ap- 
paratus for acoustics, quantitative measurements, 
batteries, electric lanterns, etc., and the other a 
large telescope. I cannot tell you how I regret that 
they cannot be abundantantly furnished with all 
this and much more. I believe that Prof. Crenshaw 
wishes you to allow him to make a special effort to 
beg the money for a $i,ooo telescope, and that Prof. 
Dolbear aspires to the privilege of raising the money 
to purchase a magnificent museum that may cost 
any sum under $10,000. I recommend you to let 
them try. 

"In conclusion allow me to express my confidence 
in the future of Bethany College, and my steadfast 
purpose to labor as best I can to get her out of debt 
and adequately endowed, when I shall feel warranted 
in asking you to give me some respite from labors 
which have been protracted now through over thirty 
years of unremitting professional service, and which. 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 403 

seem rather to increase than diminish with the 
years." 

This is but half of Mr. Pendleton's annual report 
and will give some idea of the scope of his labors. 
At this Board meeting Col. A. Campbell moved 
"that the Committee of Ways and Means be em- 
powered to borrow from any fund or sell any stock, 
securities or property belonging to Bethany College 
for the purpose of immediately paying all the out- 
standing debts of said college," which was adopted. 
There are twenty-five graduates in the class of '73, 
among them J. B. Clark ("Champ"), W. K. Curtis, 
H. S. Lobingier, J. F. Merryman, L. H. Stine and 
J. H. Beatty. Benjamin B. Odell, now governor of 
New York, was a student of the college at this ses- 
sion. 

In 1874 the President's report showed that the 
college now owed nearly $17,000, and that there 
had been borrowed from the various endowment 
funds nearly $34,000 for building and salaries; and 
it was ordered that the Committee of Ways and 
Means proceed to carry out the resolution of the 
previous year as to the sale of stock, securities, etc., 
to pay this obligation. A. McLean, N. McLeod 
and G. T. Smith were among the fourteen graduates 
of the session. F. D. Power, a graduate of 1871, 
was added to the faculty as Adjunct Professor of 
Ancient Languages. 

At the board meeting in '75 Mr. Pendleton re- 
ports the operation of his plan for present relief, and 
the good work of H. M. Hickcock as financial agent 
in working it. Friends of the college were requested 
to make pledges for a series of years of sums from 



404 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

five to one hundred dollars to meet the current 
annual expenses. "The time," he says, "is a dark 
one for the college, but we hope it is only the deep 
darkness that precedes the dawn of a bright day." 
He publishes during the year two different appeals 
which are pathetic indeed in their expression. He 
recites the work of the college, calls the roll of its 
honored graduates, urges its claims with an elo- 
quence and earnestness that are almost passionate. 
"Are there not brethren with hearts to help us?" 
he asks. No one could measure the cruel anxieties 
and ever-recurring disappointments of these years — 
the over-burdened days, the sleepless nights — carry- 
ing what the circumstances of the case made the 
weight of almost a personal responsibility. At this 
board meeting in 1875 a committee is appointed to 
confer "with committees from the alumni and the 
literary societies about meeting the deficit to the 
faculty." Degrees are conferred on seventeen young 
men, among them J. A. Myers, E. T. Williams, E. 
V. Zollars, M. M. Cochran, I. J. Spencer, and J. M. 
Trible. 

The festivities at this thirty-fourth commence- 
ment of the college were unusual. Many distin- 
guished persons from different sections of the coun- 
try were present: Hon. J. S. Black, Governor Jacob, 
Judges Hoffman and Moore of the Supreme Court of 
the State, Attorney-General Matthews, President 
Hays of Washington and Jefferson College, B. A. 
Hinsdale, J. F. Rowe, Russell Errett and a large 
number of representatives of the press, the bar and 
the pulpit. The exercises throughout were of ex- 
ceptional character. The president of the college 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 405 

received on commencement day a parchment from 
tlie University of Pennsylvania conferring upon him 
the degree of Doctor of Laws — a degree seldom con- 
ferred by that ancient and honorable institution, and 
a pleasing episode was the gift to him from the 
graduating class of a gold headed cane. The special 
feature of the day was the unveiling of Hart's bust 
of Alexander Campbell in the new Commencement 
Hall. Judge Black made the presentation address 
on behalf of Mrs. Campbell, and President Pendle- 
ton's reply is worthy of the occasion. 

"It is made my privilege, honored sir, living 
friend of the honored dead, to thank you for the 
worthy words in which you have spoken to us of 
Hhe man whom we revere,' and through you to ten- 
der the grateful acknowledgments, not only of Beth- 
any College, but of a brotherhood of friends wide as 
the world, to her whose ever-loving heart has done 
the best she could and given us here, instead of his 
living self, now gone from us forever, this noble 
sculptured image of a man whose very look was 
greatness. We knew you were his friend — knew it 
from many a word of warm admiration which we re- 
member of his own lips — and we thought — 

" 'If aught of things that here befall 
Touch a spirit among things divine,' 

his could not hear unmoved the testimony which 
we knew your heart would bring of how with the 
riches of his great and gifted soul he had made to 
himself friends who cherish him in the temples of 
worship on earth and welcome him with the grati- 



4o6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tude of regenerated natures to the mansions in 
heaven. 

"We shall not forget, — the faculty of Bethany 
College, charged with the work which he began, — 
these young men, looking up to the high forms that 
stand in the honored places in the temple of a peo- 
ple's gratitude, and this people, here to-day to honor 
the grand life of Alexander Campbell, will not forget 
the inspiring words in which you have spoken of 
him, nor cease to thank you, as I now do, for their 
hearty and eloquent utterance. You have stirred 
the depths of our souls as with the trident of Nep- 
tune, and we give you back the answer of a sea of 
hearts. 

"And to Mrs. Campbell, who has committed to us 
this memorial treasure of highest art, we beg you to 
say that while his own great life forbids us to look 
on any image with feelings of idolatrous worship, 
still it is true that 'on God and godlike men we 
build our trust,' and that her gift shall be to us, by 
its ever-speaking presence, an incentive to make our 
service to the world, like his, sublime. She has 
erected upon this platform, not a vain monument of 
the dead, reciting in graven words virtues which the 
world had never recognized in the living, but a 
grand lifelike image, which in its majestic port 
speaks for itself. When, in all the after 3'ears of 
Bethany College, young hearts, thirsting for knowl- 
edge, shall come up to these halls, seeking the in- 
spiration and the learning that must ever be the 
married parents of all birth and nurture of greatness, 
the dim traditions of her illustrious founder that 
have floated 'as airy nothings' before their imagina- 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 407 

tions shall gather into form and take to themselves 
in this memorial marble 'a local habitation and a 
name,' and thenceforth forever Bethany College and 
Alexander Campbell shall live in their hearts, the 
inspiration of nobleness and the sustaining fulcrum 
of powers that shall move and bless the world. And 
is not this a grand, rich legacy to leave to posterity? 
— to establish firm in the hearts that shall rule the 
world 'the throne of Jupiter,' the steadfast, against 
which the shock of the whirlwind's car of revolution 
shall break in vain, and leave the world in peace. 

"But our simple word of thanks must not indulgfe 
in reasons.. These speak for themselves, and inspire 
the eloquence of true gratitude, which is ever silent. 
In few words, therefore, but with sincerest thanks, 
bear to Mrs. Campbell the acknowledgments of the 
trustees, the faculty and the friends of Bethany 
College, with assurances of the deep obligation 
under which you, honored sir, have placed us all by 
the distinguished manner in which you have ren- 
dered the service of the hour, and the deep and last- 
ing impression for good which, under the inspiration 
of friendship, and a kindred nature, your glov/ing 
words have left upon our hearts — in trust forever." 

At the annual m-eeting of the board, 1876, a reso- 
lution was passed advising the acceptance by Presi- 
dent Pendleton of the nomination for State Superin- 
tendent of Schools, on the ground that his filling 
this position would "contribute to the advancement 
of the interests of the college. ' ' The class for this 
year has twenty-two graduates, and of the number 
are B. C. Hagerman, F. C. McMillan, W. H. Wool- 
ery and G. Iv. Wharton. Mr. Pendleton's baccalau- 



4o8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

reate sermon is from I. Kings ii. 1-2, and is published 
in the Christian Standard. A canard in the news- 
papers, "Bethany College in the Hands of the Meth- 
odists," had some circulation, and the President 
replies to it. After a plain and frank statement of 
the facts, he says, "I hope never to live to see the 
day that our brethren will abandon Bethany College. 
Nothing but their abandonm.ent can arrest her in her 
career of usefulness. I hope never to live to see the 
day when our great and generous brotherhood will 
fail to sustain their oldest and hitherto most service- 
able institution of learning, when we have a thou- 
sand men among us, any ten of v^^hom could endow 
it and scarcely miss the contribution from their am- 
ple revenues." A full statement is made of the 
financial condition of the college, the amount of debt 
being $22,590.47; current expenses $11,850, an an- 
nual deficit of $3,363. Warning is given that unless 
speedy relief comes the college must suspend oper- 
ations. "This condition of things," says Mr. Pen- 
dleton, "has been brought about by no mismanage- 
ment of the trustees of Bethany College. Of all the 
contributions actually put into their hands for in- 
vestment and management they have never lost a 
dollar except by the unavoidable calamity of the 
war." He states that he is personally security for 
the debt of $22,000; the college is not mortgaged for 
it. He appeals for a real endowment that will yield 
an income sufficient to defray the expenses of run- 
ning and maintaining the college. "Will it be an 
impossible thing for our great brotherhood to give us 
for this purpose $100,000? Johns Hopkins, one 
man, has recently given $3,500,000 to endow a uni- 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 409 

versity in Baltimore. We are 500,000 Disciples of 
Christ — obliged by the highest conscientious consid- 
eration to do good — and can we not all do for relig- 
ion as much as one thirty-fifth part of this one man's 
gift for the world? We are not ashamed of the 
work we have done and are now doing. I am not 
afraid to say that Bethany College is more efficient 
in every department of instruction now than she has 
ever been. Think of it as we may, we cannot do 
without Bethany College. She is the nursery of our 
ministry. We have faith that after so long our pro- 
bation is well-nigh ended, and the day of our en- 
largement is at hand. Under the blessing of God it 
must come from the generosity of the brethren. We 
shall work and wait." 

This was the centennial year, and Mr. Pendleton 
was chosen by the governor of West Virginia to rep- 
resent the state at Philadelphia on West Virginia 
day. His address was a remarkable statement of 
the resources and prospects of the young common- 
wealth. He was also appointed to select the West 
Virginia memorial stone for the Washington Monu- 
ment at Washington, D. C. 

In 1877 the struggle was still on, though the plan 
of yearly pledges promised to relieve the condition 
somewhat. At the June meeting of the trustees it 
was resolved to pay off all debts as rapidly as possible 
without making sacrifices unwarranted by the circum- 
stances, and that the standing debt of the college, 
amounting to $14,478.53, which was exclusive of in- 
debtedness to the faculty, be paid at leisure out of 
any funds that might be appropriated to such pur- 
pose. Twenty young men received degrees, among 



4IO LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

them Joseph R. Lamar, A. J. Mercer and W. H. 
Scott. 

In 1878 the trustees took action admitting young 
women on equal terms with young men to all the 
privileges of the institution. There were twenty 
graduates, among them D. O. Thomas, G. T. Vin- 
son and B. L. Smith. 

The year 1879, the wing of the college building 
which contained the society hall was burned, and 
the insurance was applied on the indebtedness. 
Twenty-three received diplomas, Levi Marshall, C. 
W. Harvey and W. S. Hoye being of the number. 

The year 1880 brought the resignation of Prof. 
Loos after twenty-five years of distinguished service 
for the institution. "The state of the debt and 
means of reducing it," was the question uppermost. 
It was reported that the debt had been materially 
lessened. Eighteen received the honors of the col- 
lege. B. O. Aylesworth, S. L. Van Meter, A. S. 
Dabney, A. B. Griffith and W. S. Priest were among 
them. 

In 1 88 1 action was taken establishing a prepara- 
tory department, and Prof, and Mrs. J. S. Lowe 
elected to take charge of it, and an unsuccessful at- 
tempt was made to raise money for a Ladies' Board- 
ing Hall. The graduates this year were but five in 
number, one of them the efficient and well-beloved 
C. J. Tannar. 

It will be seen that the ten years thus outlined 
were a trying period in this history. The consump- 
tion of college endowment, by order of the trustees, 
was an error in judgment, but when we consider the 
dire straits into which these men were driven, and 



A DECADE OF FINANCIAL STRUGGLE 411 

the failure of those to whom they rightfully looked 
for assistance to come to the rescue, fairness would 
demand at least a division of blame. During all 
this time of trial the bearing of the honored Presi- 
dent is worthy of him. It is patient, courageous, 
hopeful. With a loyalty and laboriousness and sub- 
lime faith he faced the crisis and did his duty. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
EL GIBBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 

This record would not be complete without a ser- 
mon from the preacher whose life-story we have 
been seeking to tell. With all his devotion to edu- 
cational and literary work, Mr. Pendleton never lost 
sight of his higher office as a minister of the Gos- 
pel. Seldom was it that a Lord's day passed with- 
out finding him in the pulpit, and he was always 
heard with interest and even delight. His style was 
didactic. The work of the lecture room showed its 
influence upon his pulpit efforts. But there was a 
dignity of delivery, a beauty of language, a clear- 
ness of thought, a logic of arrangement and a full- 
ness of instruction that held his listeners, and often 
his utterance had a depth of earnestness, if not pas- 
sion, that deeply stirred them. The bearing of the 
man, the charm of his personality, always enlisted 
his audience. Then he gave them, not crumbs, but 
a full loaf. 

The Vermont Avenue Christian Church of Wash- 
ington, D. C, erected after President Garfield's 
death a house of worship which was formally 
opened January 20, 1884, and President Pendleton 
was invited to preach the dedicatory sermon. R. 
M. Bishop read an historical address. The service 
lasted three hours. Crowding every inch of space 
in the large auditorium and in the Sunday-school 

room was an audience with many prominent people 

412 













THE TUNNELS. 



EL GIBBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 413 

from all sections of tlie country, among them min- 
isters, members of Congress and representatives of 
all denominations, including President Arthur and 
Secretary Frelinghuysen. The scholarly and im- 
pressive discourse was based upon Isaiah ix. 6. 

I congratulate you, Christian friends, on this auspicious occa- 
sion. We are here to dedicate to its sacred uses, this beautiful 
house of Christian worship. The conspicuity given to your or- 
ganization in this city, the Capital of the United States, by the 
elevation to the chief magistracy of our government of one of 
your number, created the impulse and inspired the effort which, 
to-day, are crowned with this gratifying result. It is fitting that 
we should gratefully remember him whose high place in the 
hearts of the people may be said to have "built us this syna- 
gogue"; and, in opening it to enlarge the circle of devotion in 
which he so constantly and reverently united, to offer it to the 
free enjoyment of the public as a memorial of our loving Chris- 
tian honor for the high character and great heart of our lamented 
brother, the late President of the United States, James A. Gar- 
field. We do not canonize him as a saint; this he was and could 
become only through his own fealty to Christ; we do not dedicate 
this house to his worship; this we could not do without idolatry. 
But, remembering the benediction of his presence among us, we 
would cherish it as a high incentive to holy emulation, and feel- 
ing the manly force of his example while he lived, we would 
gratefully embalm it in this fit memorial of his Christian influ- 
ence, as a deathless testimony of the truth and blessedness of 
our common faith. And so remembering and feeling about the 
man whose almost magic name won for us the Christian sympa- 
thy and aid that have procured for us this house of God, we ded- 
icate it to the worship of the Christ in whom was his highest 
trust. 

And as a theme for our consideration on such an occasion, 
what more fitting can I select than "The Person and Work of 
Christ"? Isaiah, reporting to us the word of prophecy more 
than seven hundred years before His birth in Bethlehem, said of 
Christ: "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and 
the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall 
be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eterni- 
ty, Prince of Peace" (Isa. ix, 6). And it needs but little exposi- 



414 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tion in the light of subsequent history, to show that in these 
remarkable words there is a forecast of the person and work of 
Christ, that is so definite and comprehensive and accurate, as to 
be utterly inexplicable save upon the theory that it is the revela- 
tion of the spirit of God through the infallible inspiration of his 
prophet. It could not be a guess of Isaiah, because there was 
nothing in the circumstances to prompt conjecture. It could not 
be logical deduction, because there were no premises from which 
to draw conclusions. It could not be natural induction, because 
there were no instances in the realm of observation involving or 
revealing the possibility of the birth of such a child or the 
gift of such a son. Nor could it be rational intuition, because 
there was no necessary or absolute law of thought or feeling in 
the nature of the statements. Above and beyond the powers 
and the realm of human knowing, the vision of the prophet was 
lifted, and to it the spirit which alone searcheth the deep things 
of God, revealed things which God had foreordained before the 
worlds were created, "things that the eye had not seen and the 
ear had not heard, and that had not entered into the heart of 
man" (1 Cor. ii. 9), things that were not only preternatural, but 
in the widest, deepest sense of the word also supernatural. 

As is the source of the promise, so also is the nature of the 
person whose coming is predicted. The promise is through the 
inspiration of the Spirit; the Child that is born is the Christ, the 
Son of the living God, and both are supernatural; both, also, are 
manifested in nature. The light of prophecy shines into the 
darkness in which the light of nature is ever passing, and reveals 
the dawn of a brighter day; the light of the Son that is given is 
the incarnation of God — "God manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. iii. 
16), "to take away our sins" (Ijno. iii. 5), to lift nature above it- 
self and redeem and ennoble and quicken it with power and 
purity and immortality not its own. 

It is no straining of the language of Isaiah to say that the 
"Child that is born," the "Son that is given," is a supernatural 
being. This is the interpretation put upon it by the inspired 
biographers of Christ. Luke, the evangelist, identified him with 
the "firstborn of Mary, the espoused wife of Joseph," and tells 
how, in the same supernatural manner, his advent was pro- 
claimed by the "angel of the Lord" to the shepherds watching 
their flocks by night in the plains of Judea. "Pear not, for be- 
hold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all 
people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Sav- 
ior which is Christ the Lord." 



EL GIBBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 415 

The grandeur of this announcement, its wide-reaching signifi- 
cance, was not, could not be, comprehended or felt by the shep- 
herds to whom it was made. It was a mystery as yet too little 
unfolded to be understood on earth, but in heaven it was seen in 
a clearer light. It was an event for which the angels, ever ac- 
tive and interested in the fortunes of man, had long waited in 
hopeful suspense (1 Pet. i.l2). Its coming had been definitely 
indicated in the angel's announcement to Mary: "Behold the 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most 
High shall overshadow thee. Thou shalt bring forth a son and 
shalt call his name Jesus." "He shall be great, and shall be 
called the son of the Most High, and the Ivord shall give him the 
throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of 
Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" ("Lin'k.e 
i.32-35). 

There is a sublime fitness in this narrative of the birth of 
Jesus. The birth of a prince should be royally announced — the 
birth of the Son of God should be hailed with angelic acclama- 
tions. And when it was seen that in the mystery of the incarna- 
tion of the Son of God there was involved the solution of the 
mystery of redemption, the angels, who with desire had looked 
into these things, burst forth in praise, saying, "Glory in the 
highest to God, and on earth peace, among men — good will." 

It were well to pause for due meditation over these foreseen 
results of the birth of Jesus. It shall bring glory to God; 
throughout the highest realms and hierarchies of his universe it 
shall magnify his justice and mercy. It shall make peace on 
earth, reconcile the divine and the human, and re-establish the 
broken harmony of paradise in man's recall from exile and 
restoration to the fatherhood of God. 

So far these three things are explicitly declared: First, the 
supernatural birth of Christ. Second, that he is the Son of God. 
Third, that he is also the Son of man, and so Immanuel, God 
with us. By the mystery of incarnation — itself highest miracle 
— perfect in both natures, the God-man. The logos, eternally 
with the Father, and of the same substance — God. In time, also, 
by miraculous birth of Mary, becoming flesh and so dwelling 
among us, our sympathizing brother. 

We cannot say that these sublime facts as to the person of 
Christ were, on their first announcement, understood and re- 
ceived as they are now set forth and accepted in our matured 
evangelical theology. But they were involved in the words of 
the prophecies that went before, and of the supernatural an- 



4i6 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

nouncetnents that accompanied his advent, and we must find 
them realized in the life of Jesus, or find that he was a pretender. 
Jesus himself was content with nothing less. With no shadow 
of pride or color of vanity in his character, he was yet uncom- 
promising in his demands to be recognized as the "Son of God" 
— equal with God and the Christ of prophecy. When at Csesarea 
Philippi, he asked Peter, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of 
man, am?" he was not content to be recognized as John the 
Baptist, nor as Elijah, nor Jeremiah, nor any of the prophets. 
These were among the most honored names that had been called 
by God to deliver his counsels to men. He himself had said that 
of men born of women there had been none greater than John. 
Yet he demanded for himself a dignity and a rank — a nature 
above them all. It was only when Peter answered, "Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God," that he accepted the rec- 
ognition as adequate to his high claims upon the faith of men. 
And why was this? What mattered it to this imperial person 
what men thought of him? Was he not conscious of his own in- 
finite power and divine dignity? Did he not know that he had 
come forth from the bosom of the Father with whom he had 
shared in equal glory before the world was? Had he not power 
to lay down his life and power to take it up again, and could he 
not withdraw from this sickening battle with sin, and dwell 
apart in eternal peace? Could he not avenge himself on his per- 
secutors and call forth his body guard of angels to wither them 
from his presence? No. This would not satisfy the divine phi- 
lanthropy. He must win his way through faith to the hearts of 
men that he might save them. To this end came he into the 
world and to the hour and agony of his dreadful suffering. At 
all costs, the world must know and acknowledge him in his 
divine person, because nothing short of this could save them. It 
is not a matter of indifference what we think of him. The power 
of our faith can rise no higher than the power of him in whom 
we trust, and the faith that looks without fear into the face of 
death must trust to him who has power to destroy death. The 
faith that steps fearlessly into the dark river must see a hand 
outstretched from the other side that can lead it safely over the 
billows. The faith that aspires to life eternal must lay hold of 
him who alone has power to give it. Has he not himself said, 
"This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent" ? 

But we have said that what was thus supernaturally proclaimed 
concerning Christ was not at the first fully understood or con- 



EL GIBBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 417 

ceded by the people. And we can readily see that had these 
high pretensions rested alone on these teachings they never 
could have won the confidence of the world. They must be sus- 
tained by demonstrations of power in harmony with them. A 
supernatural being must show supernatural gifts. The Son of 
man must do works and manifest wisdom worthy of his nature. 

The people of his country, regarding him simply as the car- 
penter's son, and hearing him teach and witnessing his miracles, 
were astonished, and asked, "Whence hath this man this wisdom 
and these mighty works?" (Matt, siii.55.) How could the 
carpenter's son be capable of such things? On the other hand, 
the Savior, speaking of himself, said: "If I had not done among 
them the works which none other did, they had not had sin" 
(John xvi.24). He would have been justly despised if he had not 
sustained his pretensions by works worthy of his high claims. 
We can conceive of nothing more justly worthy of the popular 
derision than one who was nothing more than a Jewish peasant, 
claiming to be the Son of God and the Savior of the world, with 
no light of wisdom or power of works to back up his pretensions 
and authenticate his claim. 

But there is a divine harmony in the character of Christ, and 
the prophet introduces him to the world under majestic names 
indicative of his supernatural powers. He shall be called "Won- 
derful," "Counsellor," because he shall perform mighty works 
and manifest divine wisdom. By mighty works we understand 
nothing less than miracles in the true and supernatural sense of 
the word; not things marvelous only because strange and inex- 
plicable, but things wrought by an agency distinct from the 
forces of nature and beyond their operations and laws. As a 
man he had grown up through the stages of nature — a perfect 
child — a perfect boy, to perfect manhood, and like us in all 
things save sin. But now that in his human maturity he is fit 
for his work, he begins to manifest the fullness also of his divine 
nature, and henceforth his walk in the world is marked with 
work worthy of his name. 

Miracles, not one here and there wrought under special cir- 
cumstances, and by previous arrangements of collusion; not in 
dark seances, and with jugglery of deception, but miracles by the 
thousand, in the light of day, on the streets, in the highways, 
in company with his friends, and in the face of his enemies; upon 
the sick, the maimed, the blind, the halt, the dead; upon the 
leper crying, "Unclean, unclean," and the raging demoniac 
gnashing upon his chains; upon the winds, and the waves, and 
27 



4i8 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

the laws of gravity. Upon the forces of nature on earth , and the 
power of demons in hell, the touch of his hand or the sound of 
his voice falls, and they obey. 

What shall we say of these things? What did his enemies say 
at the time? Did they deny the fact? If the subtle but sophis- 
tical Hume had been there, and cried out: "It is impossible to 
prove a miracle, "what think you the people would have said? 
What would Ivazarus, standing up in the vigor of his new life, 
have answered? "Impossible to prove a miracle! Why, look at 
me!" What would the widow of Nain have said, snatching 
up her child from the bier, and pushing aside the monrners and 
the pall-bearers? "Behold my boy!" What would the man blind 
from his birth have said? "Impossible to prove it or not, this I 
know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." No, this was not 
the argument then. It would have been folly to deny the possi- 
bility of what everybody saw to be actual fact. But some said: 
"He hath a demon and is mad." Others answered, "Can a de- 
mon open the eyes of the blind?" Others said: "He casteth out 
demons by the power of Beelzebub." But again the refutation 
came from the Savior himself: "If I cast out demons by the 
power of Satan, then is his kingdom divided against itself, and 
must fall." 

It has been asked, "What proof is there in a miracle of a 
moral proposition?" and we answer, it is found in the character 
of the miracle. Simply and of itself, a miracle only proves the 
presence of supernatural power; but the nature of the miracle 
proves the nature of the agent exercising the power. In the 
miracles of the Savior it is not the power that attracts us so much 
as the divine beneficence manifested in it. His miracles were all 
in helpfulness to humanity, wrought in the interests of man. 
They were acts of relief from suffering, with tenderest brotherly 
sympathy for the sufferer. Assume if you please that there are 
other powers in the universe capable of working miracles; we 
have no interest in them if they are not wrought in our behalf. 
These miracles are barren facts unless in some way related to my- 
self. We study the Savior's miraculous deeds, and we find them 
all good. We can look over them all, and witnessing the fresh- 
ness and the sweetness of the life and joy which sprang up every- 
where under His supernatural touch, we can say, as God said of 
the original creation, they are "very good." And it needs no in- 
ference of logic to satisfy my heart that their author is good, and 
also my friend. 

It is this aspect of the supernatural power of Christ that the 



EL GIBBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 419 

Christian delights to contemplate — herein that we are drawn to 
Him as our Savior. Feeling our need of help, borne down with 
burdens greater than we can bear, the soul feels out for one who, 
touched with the feeling of its infirmity, has also the power to 
bring it aid. And it is because there is no form in which I may 
suffer, no faculty in which I am weak, no danger or peril that I 
fear, or sense of guilt under which I tremble, in which he has 
not proved himself able and willing to comfort me, to give me 
support, to fill me with strength, to animate me with courage, 
and to give me the assurance of mercy, that I can look up to him 
with unfaltering faith, and find in him a present help in all my 
times of need. 

We have many fine eulogies upon the perfect human character 
of Christ, and these are admirable and just. We love to contem- 
plate the dignity and purity to which he raised our humanity in 
his sublime, heroic life. Every tender word of his grace and 
helping touch of his hand should be precious to us. No tear of 
his sympathy ever dropped upon human suffering should be lost 
from our grateful remembrace. With more than a brother's 
heart he poured out his life for us. But take away from his will- 
ingness to suffer with us and for us his divine, his supernatural 
power to help us, and you strip him of all that makes him my 
Savior. You present me with a beautiful casket, embellished 
with highest art of human hand, but the priceless jewel which 
no man can create is torn from its setting, and the glory and the 
value of the gift are gone. It is marred by defect more than we 
can bear. 

Shallow indeed is the Christian philosophy that can be satis- 
fied with a merely human Christ, and worse than shallow the 
theology that can find in one no more than ourselves a sufficient 
Savior of sinners. The mocking priests and scribes were, upon 
their theory, right when they said, "He saved others, himself he 
cannot save. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he 
will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God" (Matt, xxviio 
42,43). We hesitate not to say that if Christ had not, in the 
power of his divine nature, taken up his life, and risen again 
from death, this verdict of the mocking priests and scribes would 
have become the verdict of the world. 

Do not understand me as arguing the question of the possibil- 
ity of miracles. To deny this is to deny the being and attributes 
of God. It is the most absolute atheism. It may be that many 
persons do not understand the logical consequences of their 
skepticism on this point. But a creator of a universe who has 



420 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

lost control of it is a contradiction of ideas utterly irreconcil- 
able; and so, also, a Christ who is not superior to nature is incapa- 
ble of providence or redemption. He can neither save us nor an- 
swer our prayers. His power is not adequate to the work to be 
done. I am arguing, therefore, that this essential and inalien- 
able attribute of God must also be inherent in Christ, as the nec- 
essary ground in his nature of the power by which he can be a 
Savior to the world. Paul was in no sense a pantheist, yet he 
taught with no shadow of equivocation the immanence of God 
in the whole creation, that "of him and through him and unto 
him are all things" (Rom. xi. 36). And in his profound rational 
argument with the "men of Athens" he says, "In him we live 
and move and have our being" (Acts xvii. 28). With equal ex- 
plicitness he says of Christ, "By him were all things created," 
and "By him all things consist," that is, are held together 
(Col. i. 16, 17), "for in him dwelleth all fullness of the Godhead 
bodily" (Col. ii. 9). More intimate than we can understand is 
this vital relation with Christ. It is as a telephonic cord, re- 
porting every desire we breathe in prayer, and bringing back to 
us his gracious answer. It knows no conditions of time or space, 
but is a spiritual sympathy higher than nature and stronger than 
death. 

We must pass by, for want of time adequately to consider it, 
the deep question of the atonement. It is an act in the great 
work of the world's redemption which it is important for us to 
know, but by no means necessary to comprehend. Some men 
are seriously dissatisfied with the whole teaching of Scripture on 
the subject, and are sensitively concerned lest the character of 
God should be compromised thereby. There be danger of this 
from some of the theories that are abroad in our theologies. But 
neither God, nor Christ, nor the apostle Paul, must be held re- 
sponsible for these. They are the over-curious speculations of 
our ignorance. We are safe so long as we feel that "all have 
sinned, and fall short of the glory of God," and gratefully realize 
that we are "justified freely by His grace, through the redemp- 
tion that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be a propitia- 
tion, through faith in his blood, for the showing of his righteous- 
ness, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him that 
hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. iii. 23-26). 

We cannot contemplate the awful fact of the humiliation and 
death of Christ in connection with his resurrection and glorifi- 
cation, and the consequent free proclamation of the forgiveness 
of sins through faith in his name, without a profound er sense of 



EL GIEBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 421 

the immaculate justice of God, and the infinite tenderness and 
reach of his mercy. Here, as nowhere else, at the foot of the 
cross and under the sound of the gospel, we are made to exclaim, 
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne, mercy 
and truth go before thy face" (Psa. Ixxxix. 14). The heart of 
sin trembles at the one, the heart of faith rejoices at the other; 
and so we are led to repent and worship. 

It was essential to the work of Christ that he should appear as 
a teacher, and in the prophecy of Isaiah he is called "Coun- 
sellor." Nicodemus said to him, "We know thou art a teacher 
come from God" (John iii. 2); and at his transfiguration, "The 
voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matt. svii. 5). He speaks, 
therefore, with the authority and the infallibity of God. But it is 
no philosophy that he teaches, no policy of earthly life that he 
propounds, no theory of civil government that he proclaims. 
These things are good in their place, but the wisdom and the 
counsel of man are quite sufficient for them. His theme is of the 
things that are above, and his teachings are revelations. Much 
that he said related to the common qualities of virtue and moral- 
ity, but he touched them with a celestial light, and men saw 
them as never before. He stripped the maxims of tradition of 
their corrupting sophistries, and probed the hearts of men with 
the insight of omniscience. All this was worthy of his divine 
intelligence, and has justly been the admiration of the world. 
But his mission reached higher than this. It was to throw light 
upon the great questions of human destiny that as yet lay hidden 
in the deep counsels of God. It was to manifest to the conscious- 
ness of the world the tragic horror of sin; to provide and pro- 
claim a way of escape from its eternal punishment and of free- 
dom from its guilt; to lift the awful darkness that rested upon 
death and the grave, and bring life and immortality to light. 
It was to bring life and joy to the hearts of men through a reve- 
lation of the ineffable love of God. It was to show us the Fath- 
er; to lead us back to his unveiled face by a new and living v^ay 
which none had ever found before. It was to spread out before 
us visions of Paradise restored, passing all power of human lan- 
guage to describe. To refuse to hear this counsellor is to shut 
out from our minds all this knowledge, and on these subjects to 
lapse into the darkness of heathenism. It is knowledge alto- 
gether above the power of the understanding or reason to discov- 
er, yet altogether consistent with the character of God, and 
adapted to the wants of the soul. Without it the soul would be 



422 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

as the eye without light — a grand capacity for knowing, with no 
objective revelation to awaken it into action, or to present to it 
realities fitted for its enjoyment; and being God given, it must 
be' received by faith and tried by the heart. It is not science, 
but revelation; yet, like science, it is objective reality presented, 
not in nature, but in the person and teachings of Christ, and so 
enriching the soul with highest wisdom. 

From the advent of this Counsellor, the world is bathed in 
new light. Man is seen in a new dignity; God is embraced in a 
higher worship; life is delivered from the gloom of inevitable 
tragic death, and hope spreads its inviting colors over the world. 
He who is called "Wonderful," "Counsellor," through higher 
and higher manifestations of power and wisdom, reveals himself 
as "Mighty God," and moving about among us, clothed in our 
nature, is laying the foundations of a new and everlasting king- 
dom. "Bvery battle of the warrior is with confused noise and 
garments rolled in blood," but the victories of the Son are con- 
quests of peace. He is the "Prince of Peace." To this end he 
came into the world, for this he died upon the cross, for this he 
is now the head of the body, the Church — "For it pleased the 
Father, through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having 
made peace through the blood of the cross" (Col. i. 19). 

To the worship of this glorious person we dedicate this home. 
We know him as our brother. In him we see the Father. With- 
out idolatry we worship him in the familiar form of our own 
nature; and because, even in heaven, he looks like a lamb 
that hath been slain, we can ever contemplate him as our peace. 
We present him — the God-man — to the world as its Savior. We 
can see him, hear him, thrill under the sympathetic touch of his 
helping hand, and walk with assurance under the infallible guid- 
ance of his commanding voice. He is no vague abstraction, 
far-off ideal of unreal dreams, but an incarnation with our own 
nature, and a present exalted ruling sovereign, Lord of lords and 
King of kings, with his eye ever upon us and his heart ever with 
us, for sympathy, for help and assured victory. The human 
heart pants for such leadership. Men look up to such a hero. 
They call for a friend higher than themselves. The Church 
must hold up him who is its head, as "the chief among the ten 
thousands," in whom alone is realized all this power, and sym- 
pathy, and helpfulness, and success of victory that the world is 
longing for, blindly groping for among manifold idols, and sum- 
mon men to fly to his uplifted banner. Let us throw away our 
philosophies, our divisive creeds, our human Shibboleths of fel- 



EL GIBBOR, ABI AD, SAR SHALOM 423 

lowship, and combine our forces under "the Christ, the Son of 
the living God," and with this as our battle cry, strike for the 
eternal victories of peace. And may he who is called "Wonder- 
ful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace," sustain 
and guide us, and bring us to the final triumph and blessing of 
his everlasting kingdom! 



^\ 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 

After the year 1884, Mr. Pendleton ceases to 
write after his name the stately Presses^ and must 
use the more modest Agricola. He is relieved of 
the burdens he has so long and so faithfully carried 
in his sixty-eighth year. Bethany's financial dis- 
tress continued beyond the period between '71 and 
'81. In '8's' President Garfield dies, and resolutions 
are passed by the Board of Trustees in his memory, 
and his place in the board is left vacant for one year 
in token of respect. As to the deficit, the board re- 
solved vaguely that it be paid "out of any funds 
which maybe used for such purpose," leaving the 
President to wrestle with the problem as best he 
could. In the year '83 the same conditions con- 
fronted the institution. In '84 the treasurer's re- 
port shows receipts ^10,668.91, and expenditures 
$11,471.19. R. M. Bishop offered a resolution "that 
W. K. Pendleton, J. E. Curtis and C. H. Beall be 
appointed a committee to take charge of the college 
assets and sell and transfer so much of the stock in 
the Wellsburg bank at such time and in such man- 
ner as they in their judgment may think best, and 
appropriate a sufficient amount of the proceeds to 
the payment of the debts of the college." At this 
meeting Mr. Pendleton offered his resignation, and 
at the same time canceled a debt of $3,400 back 

salary which was due him. 

424 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 425 

In the report of the committee on his resignation, 
thanks are expressed for this donation and for the 
immense clerical work which, as treasurer, he had 
performed, and the report closes: "We thank God 
for him as a co-worker and for his eminent services 
in the management and high position to which the 
college has been brought chiefly through his labors." 
The committee recommended that W. K. Pendleton 
be asked to let his name stand as President, while 
he would be relieved of all active service until such 
time as the board could satisfactorily fill his place. 
President Pendleton agreed to this, and Prof. B, C. 
Hagerman was made chairman of the faculty for the 
following session. Mr. Pendleton continued as 
trustee of the college, and, though living in Florida, 
was absent but for two meetings during the remain- 
der of his life; on one of these occasions he was pre- 
vented by important obligations elsewhere, and on 
the second, 1898, he was too ill to make the jour- 
ney. 

Prof. W. H. Woolery succeeded Prof. Hagerman 
as chairman of the faculty for the session '85-6, and 
at the boaid meeting of that year Mr. Pendleton 
urged the trustees to elect a permanent President at 
once, as he thought the existing arrangement un- 
wise, and on this ground insisted upon the final ac- 
ceptance of his own resignation to make room for 
another. Prof. Woolery was accordingly elected, 
and President Pendleton's name appears afterward 
in the catalogue as President Emeritus. 

In '84, at the time of Mr. Pendleton's resignation, 
the matter of employing a financial agent was left 
to him, and he engaged the services of Mr. S. M. 



426 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Cooper, and pledged $5,000 on the first block of 
$50,000 Mr, Cooper undertook to raise as endowment. 
This, with the $3,400 on salary, and $600 pre- 
viously given on endowment, made Mr. Pendleton's 
gifts to the college $9,000 at and within a short 
time after his resignation. 

Mr. Pendleton's reasons for resigning the position 
he had so long and so worthily filled were good ones. 
He realized that he was growing old, and a younger 
man might take the burden and bear it more effec- 
tively. He had become a sufferer from insomnia, 
and felt that he was breaking down under the 
weight of anxiety and responsibility he had so long 
carried. He ardently wished and hoped that with 
recuperation under the conditions of life in Florida, 
and the leisure that would come to him, he might 
devote himself to the literary work for which he was 
so eminently fitted, and might thus leave to the lit- 
erature of the Church some such contribution as his 
manifold labors, responsibilities, interests and anx- 
ieties had hitherto made impossible. He found re- 
lief from care, and no doubt greater length of days 
because of this withdrawal from the intense activi- 
ties and anxieties of his long service as college Pres- 
ident, but his expectations as to literary labor were 
not met. While the condition of insomnia was re- 
lieved by his outdoor life on the orange farm, which 
was possible at all seasons, no sooner did he take up 
his pen than a few hours' work brought back the 
old trouble that his life for so many years at Beth- 
any had made almost a fixed habit. Then came a 
severe illness from la grippe in '93 which his ner- 
vous system never threw off wholly, though his 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 427 

mind was always young, strong and clear to tlie last. 

Mr. Pendleton's reputation did not need the added 
glory that comes from literary achievement. No 
book, however able, widely read, and influential in 
moulding the thought of others, could compare with 
the impress that he had made upon the living tab- 
lets of human hearts. In his almost limitless con- 
tributions to the religious press he had canvassed all 
the great living questions that belonged to the pe- 
riod, and his pen had been mighty in the councils of 
the brotherhood with whom he was associated, and 
even beyond their borders. In the broad beneficence 
of his many-sided daily life he touched humanity at 
all points, and served his own generation well. He 
might have shut himself off from the multiform 
needs of his day, and dwelt apart, and so have pre- 
pared for posterity some substantial benefit by deny- 
ing to the current life of his time what he was so 
richly able to bestow; but this he would not do. The 
closing lines of George Eliot's Middlemarch, with 
but a change of subject, might truly apply to him, 
for, "His finely touched spirit had still its fine is- 
sues, though they were not so widely visible. His 
full nature, like that river of which Alexander broke 
the strength, spent itself in channels which had no 
great name on the earth. But the effect of his be- 
ing on those around him was incalculably diffusive; 
for the growing good of the world is partly depend- 
ent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill 
with you and me as they might have been is half 
owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden 
life, and rest in unvisited tombs." 

But, after all, what better works than living, breath- 



428 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

ing, acting, speaking volumes! Christ left no book. 
His only writing was the pardon of a sinful woman, 
which he traced with his finger in the sand at his 
feet. His Sermon on the Mount and Story of the 
Lost Son represent that which is most consummate 
and masterful in all literature, but he wrote nothing. 
His are living epistles. There axe. no dicta proban- 
tia — no proof texts or written testimonies like living 
men and women. 

How wide-reaching was Mr. Pendleton's contribu- 
tion to the world's best life in this respect eternity 
alone can tell. Here is a single illustration. On 
August 21, 182 1, Charles Carlton was born in Ey- 
thorn, County of Kent, England. His father was a 
carriage-maker, and settled in Canada in 1854. At 
fifteen Charles went to sea, and worked on a mer- 
chant vessel plying between Hamburg and North 
Scotland. After several years of hard life as a sailor 
on many seas he went to New Brunswick, and spent 
three years in a shipyard, and later worked on a 
farm. In 1844 ^^ went to Boston, and then to Fre- 
donia, New York, where he went to school, cutting 
wood and making fires to pay his tuition. Mr. G. 
W. Lewis, of Fredonia, offered him $100 towards 
defraying his expenses if he would go to Bethany 
College, and he gladly accepted, and with only this 
sum set off to take a three years' course in that in- 
stitution. He attended the college in '47 and '48, 
and finding his means all exhausted he told his in- 
structor, Mr. Pendleton, that he was compelled to 
leave. On being pressed for his reason, he informed 
the professor that he had no clothes to wear, and no 
money to buy them with, or to pay his tuition. Prof. 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 429 

Pendleton offered him the use of his own wardrobe 
and promised all the help he could give if he would 
remain. Thus pressed to stay, he continued the 
work of completing his education, and so faithfully 
was the work done that he finished the three years' 
course in two years' time, graduating with the de- 
gree of A. B. in the same class with Lard and 
Neville, July 4, 1849. 

He became a preacher of the gospel and served 
as a pastor in Kentucky and Missouri, but in Texas 
was his great work done, and Carlton College at 
Bonham, Texas, and "Uncle Charlie Carlton" be- 
came a fountain of blessing to thousands. Two 
men he said he could never forget, Mr. lycwis 
and W. K. Pendleton. 

On retiring from his active work in the college, 
Mr. Pendleton gave himself to a calling that was 
very congenial to him, and for which he was every 
way fitted. Always a lover of nature, a farmer's 
son, and himself, in a modest way, of the same 
noble profession, he was at home with "The Man 
with the Hoe." Agriculture is not only the oldest 
but the most fundamental of all human industries. 
We pray one prayer for material blessing, "Give us 
this day our daily bread," and here is the material 
basis of all higher functions, trade and politics, 
science and art, law and poetry, religion and phi- 
losophy. Our whole social order, after all, rests 
upon the man with the seed of hay in his hair. 
Then God's witnesses are in the rain from heaven, 
and fruitful seasons, "filling men with food and 
gladness." Teachings of natural religion are not 
superseded by Revelation. The daily dawn, the 



430 LIFE OF W. K. PEN])LETON 

depths of the midniglit sky, the spring flowers 
breaking from the earth, the singing brook, the 
loveliness of June, the golden glories of autumn, the 
outspread snow, are divinely ordained teachers of 
the truth of God. Consider the lilies. Behold the 
fowls of the air. More than that, happiness is here. 
The Lord God in the beginning took the man and 
put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to 
keep it. 

In that sweetest of books, Alphonse Karr's "Tour 
Round My Garden," he says: "Some time past a 
circumstance that appeared strange has attracted 
my attention. I dare say you remember my speak- 
ing to you of a house crowned with thatch, of the 
thatch covered with moss, of the ridge of the roof 
crowned with iris, which was to be seen from a cer- 
tain point in my garden. Well, for several days I 
perceived the house was shut up, and I asked my 
servant, 'Does not the woodman live up yonder 
now?' 'No, sir, he has gone now nearly two 
months. He is become rich; he has inherited a 
property of six hundred livres a year, and he is gone 
to live in town.' 

"He is become rich! That is to say, that with 
his six hundred livres he is gone to live in a little 
apartment in the city without air and without sun, 
where he can neither see the heavens, nor the trees, 
nor the verdure; where he will breathe unwhole- 
some air; where his prospect will be confined to a 
paper of dirty yellow, embellished with chocolate 
arabesque. He is become rich! He is become rich! 
That is to say, he is not allowed to keep his dog 
which he has had so long, because it annoyed the 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 431 

other lodgers of the house. He lodges in a sort of 
square box; lie has people on the right hand and on 
the left, above him and below him. He has left his 
beautiful cottage and his beautiful trees, and his sun 
and his grass carpet so green, and the song of birds 
and the odor of oaks. He is become rich! Poor 
man!" 

Mr. Pendleton's ideas are not unlike these of the 
author of the "Tour Round My Garden." Hear 
him talk to the farmers. 

"Philosophers, poets, statesmen, philanthropists, 
in all ages, and in all countries, claiming any degree 
of civilization, have admired and commended the oc- 
cupation and life of the farmer. From the time that 
the descendants of Abraham first settled in Palestine 
they became husbandmen, from the chiefs of the 
tribe of Judah to the lowest branch of the tribe of 
Benjamin. Abraham himself was a shepherd, whose 
flocks would have covered a thousand of our hills, 
and whose three hundred trained servants would 
constitute him a noble, even now, among the proud- 
est of our favored land, and in this, the nineteenth 
century of progress and democratic greatness. 
Gideon, the mighty man of valor, was called from 
the flail and the threshing to smite the Midianites, 
even before Cincinnatus was born; Saul was an- 
ointed king over Israel by the prophet of the Lord, 
when in search of his father's asses — from the care 
of donkeys to the government of men; and David, 
from the pastures and his sheep, to rule over a king- 
dom glorious as the sun and famous through all the 
cycles of time. The Egyptians, whose agriculture 
supplied the famines of other lands, ascribed the in- 



432 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

vention of the art to their chief divinity Osiris, and 
even worshiped, in idol-forrns, the meanest vege- 
tables of the earth. Ceres, still sung as the goddess 
of plenty, was first deified in Sicily, because she was 
the first to introduce the art of tillage and of sowing 
corn into that island. In fact there is no art, no oc- 
cupation of man, to which so universal homage has 
been paid by the wisest, the most powerful of man- 
kind, as this much disparaged and neglected art of 
agriculture. 

"It is related of the ancient Persians that their 
kings laid aside their regal dignity once a month, 
and mingled with the farmers, in all the familiarity 
of guests, to show their respect for the avocation and 
their appreciation of its utility and importance, and 
it is a doctrine of the Zendavesta, the book of their 
religion, that the man who sowed the ground, and 
cultivated the soil with diligence, acquired greater 
religious merit than by the repetition of ten thousand 
prayers. In China the art is no less distinguished. 
The patronage of the court and the services of re- 
ligion are both made subservient to its interests and 
advancement, above every other art or science — and 
hence the Chinese are said to be now the best agri- 
culturists in the world. The Emperor goes out 
once a year to plough, accompanied by all the 
princes and grandees, and in the beginning of spring 
the whole retinue, with religious solemnity, perform 
the labors of the plowman, and conclude the solemn 
rites of the season by a public sacrifice to Chang-Ti, 
invoking at the same time a favorable season and 
fruitful harvests. 

"Individuals distinguished for all that renders 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 433 

men great, have delighted, no less than courts and 
governments, to testify to the usefulness and essen- 
tial importance of agriculture. Its praises have en- 
gaged the most grateful powers of the poet, and 
every language whose perfection has admitted the 
sweet measures of harmony, has its pastoral odes, 
and its rural poems, its Eclogues and its Georgics. 
The profoundest philosophers have delighted to 
trace its influence upon the permanency of States, 
and to unfold its happy tendencies upon the moral- 
ity, the civilization and the religion of man — while 
the stern warrior has paused amid the desolations of 
his own pathway— -over the smoking ashes, perhaps, 
of some rural home whose quiet joys his own pesti- 
lential breath has blighted forever, to listen to the 
suddenly roused but strange voice of his childhood's 
creed — 

'* 'Soft notes, awful as the omen 
Of destructive tempests coming,' 

whispering to him of sweet scenes afar off — 

" 'Where the earth herself is adorning, 
Each sweet May morning, 
And the children are pulling 
On every side 

In a thousand valleys far and wide 
Fresh flowers, while the sun shines warm, 
And the babe leaps up on its mother's arm.' 

"Mago, a famous Carthaginian general, is said to 
have written no less than twenty-eight books on the 
subject of agriculture, and we are informed that 
these were translated into lyatin by the express order 
of the Roman Senate! Hesiod, the oldest of the 
heathen poets, and the first writer upon the subject 

28 



434 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

of agriculture, devoted his labors to the genealogies 
of the gods and the praises of husbandry. Zenophon 
calls it the nursing mother of the arts, and among 
the Romans the most illustrious senators and war- 
riors pursued it as their favorite and most delightful 
employment. Regulus, when leading the Roman 
cohorts in triumph through Africa, still dreamed of 
his home and his farm on the Tiber, and requested 
the Senate to recall him lest its cultivation might 
be neglected. Cato, the Censor, after having retired 
from the government of extensive provinces, devoted 
his mind and energies to the subject of husbandry, 
as the best interests of his country and the worthiest 
theme of his ripened patriotism. We have still a 
treatise on the subject composed by him and dedi- 
cated to his son, which has come down to us in its 
original form. Virgil, Varro and Columella have 
all thrown around the subject the fascinations of 
genius and clothed it with the beauties of a poesy 
which will be admired as long as man has an ear for 
harmony, or a soul for the loveliness of nature. 

"I am myself, you know, a farmer only in a small 
way; what I presume you would call, were you my 
neighbors, a 'model farmer,' which, I believe, is 
generally taken to mean a man who supports his 
farm by his profession. This, however, is not pre- 
cisely the case with me, still I have never made a 
fortune by farming; it is not my occupation. Not- 
withstanding, I should have no objection to let the 
best farmer amongst you see how I manage my few 
acres, nor, indeed, to make a comparison of crops 
with him, provided he would agree to ask no ques- 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 435 

tions about the profits. These I cannot answer very 
well about, as I keep no particular account of them. 
It becomes me, as an old Virginian, further to say, 
that if any of the ladies will do me the honor to call 
on me, it will afford me great pleasure to show them 
through the walks, the shrubbery, the flowers and 
the fruits of my quiet country home, and to compare 
my management with theirs, in doors and out, from 
the kitchen to the garret, the dairy to the dining- 
room, or the pantry to the pigpen. 

"Every one, I believe, has in him some love of 
the beautiful. The little child will hush its cry to 
grasp in its dimpled hand the blossoming rose ; the 
aged patriarch will lean upon his staff to gaze at the 
softened hues of the western twilight; the maiden, 
in her teens, rosy as the dawn she welcomes, and 
pure as the dewdrop she dashes with her feet, trips 
with a lighter tread and sings with a gayer heart 
amid odors and hues of flowers and chirpings and 
songs of birds; and the young farmer, as he goes to 
his labor in the morning, and sees on the hillock in 
the meadow 'the young lambs bound, as to the 
tabor's sound,' feels as though he eould join their 
sports and mingle in their innocent joy. Truly does 
a poet sing, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever,' and 
what beautiful thing is more joyous than a beautiful 
country home? Ought it not to be a place of sweet 
flowers and of graceful vines twining about rustic 
columns and hanging in festoons from trellised 
porches, or half-hidden lattice of embowered win- 
dows? Comfortable, convenient, airy, roomy and 
cleanly within let your houses be; also tasteful and 



436 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

proportioned without. It costs no more to build 
after a good model tlian a bad one, and the finest 
and most picturesque architectural effect may often 
be secured by but very little expense. Why will a 
man erect an ugly house, when he can as easily have 
a beautiful one? It were as reasonable in him to 
select an ugly woman for a wife, when a pretty one, 
and equally good and congenial, could be as readily 
had for the wooing. Why stick it in the hollow of 
some overfrowning hills, out of sight of his neigh- 
bors and the rest of mankind, when his farm abounds 
in the most airy, heartsome and delightful sites for 
its location? Only imagine the difference in the 
aspect which your county would wear if every farm 
had a neat, well-built, well-painted and well-fur- 
nished dwelling, surrounded with a tasteful inclos- 
ure and buried in verdant shrubbery and odor-yield- 
ing flowers. You might thus almost renew again 
on earth lost Eden's bloom, and make your children 
angels." 

Mr. Pendleton resigned in 1884, and his resigna- 
tion was formally accepted in '86. Among the 
graduates under him during these closing years of 
his administration were J. L. Atkins, Mary A. 
Campbell, S. L. Darsie, H. King Pendleton and A. 
M. Harvuot, '82; C. M. Oliphant, Irene T. Myers, 
W. S. St. Clair, '83; C. G. Brelos, G. T. Halbert, 
P. Y. Pendleton, L. C. Woolery, '84; F. P. Arthur, 
F. M. Dowling, N. A. Phillips, '85, and H. L. 
Willett, '86. His name from this time to the close 
of his life appears in the catalogue as President 
Eine^atus. The Roman soldier, or official, who had 
served out his legal time, and hence was entitled to 



FROM THE PRESIDENCY TO THE FARM 437 

special privileges, bore this title. To none was it 
ever more fitting than to this faithful servant of the 
cause of education. 

Among those serving in the faculty during the 
closing years of Mr. Pendleton's presidency were 
E. D. Barclay, Julian B. Crenshaw, J. A. Beattie, 
J. F. Eastwood, E. V. Zollars, B. C. Hagerman, 
E. M. Sniff, James Eane Allen, W. H. Woolery, 
A. C. Pendleton, C. J. Kemper, A. F. Erb, M. J. 
Thompson, Oscar Schraeidel and E. M. Epstien. 

No history of the college would be complete with- 
out a record of the hundreds of students who did not 
remain to receive the honors of graduation, whose 
names do not appear among the number on whom 
degrees were conferred, and yet, nourished by this 
alma mater, went forth from her halls to achieve 
distinction in the various walks of life. Page after 
page might be taken up with the names of those 
who have thus reflected honor upon the institution 
and the influence and teaching of her President and 
faculty. They also belong to the Bethany fellow- 
ship. In the words of the diploma: Omnibus et 
Singulis Has Literas Lecturis Salutem; Salutem in 
Domino. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 

"Among the leaves there is fruit," was President 
Garfield's book-motto. Inter epistolas — among the 
letters of men of character and genius are often the 
richest treasures of their thinking — certainly the 
truest pictures of their minds and hearts, and of the 
simple common sense of their every-day lives. 
Some glimpses of Mr. Pendleton's inner life we feel 
are essential to this story. Models, in penmanship, 
in grace and beauty of expression, in their newsy 
character and local coloring, in expression of kind- 
ness and affection, not only for loved ones, but for 
all men, in their spirit of religious devotion, these 
letters always are. Never once are they marred by 
a harsh or un-Christian sentiment toward any soul. 
Dealing with a vast variety of topics, written from 
almost every section of the country, mentioning by 
name hundreds of friends and brethren, they would 
form a volume of great value in themselves, but can 
only be briefly quoted here. 

September 26, 1870. "I had a romantic wedding 
affair to-day. As I came up at about 11 A. M. from 
the college I found the old gentleman present of 
whom I told you, standing under the buckeye tree 
near the gate, and beside him a veiled lady, appar- 
ently awaiting somebody. As I approached them 
he saluted me with 'Good-morning,' and told me 
sans ceremonie that he had brought the lady and the 

438 








il 





FALLS AND SWINGING BRIDGE. 



INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 439 

license, and as it was her pleasure to have it so, he 
wished me to perform the ceremony just then and 
there under the horse chestnut. I proposed to go 
into the house, but he said no, and accordingly I 
ordered hats off and went at it. I soon tied them, 
and after treating her to a beautiful bouquet, helped 
them into their buggy and dismissed them with my 
blessing. He was sixty, she thirty-five." 

Of the Constitutional Convention at Charleston in 
'73 he writes that it has some able men in it and 
some "only medium." "We elected without oppo- 
sition Governor Price as President. I refused to let 
my name be used." He speaks of his presiding 
over the committee of the whole. He refers to the 
debate on the subject of the State debt. "It called 
out all the ablest men of the convention, and in- 
volved some intricate points of national law and 
especially of abstract justice. One of the speakers 
in reviewing the debate was pleased to say that the 
gentleman from Brooke who did not profess to be a 
lawyer at all had shown himself to be a better law- 
yer than all the lawyers who had spoken on the 
subject." 

He says of Col. A. Campbell, "Mr. Campbell is 
deservedly one of the most popular members of the 
convention, and has been a true and untiring worker 
for the interests of our people. The citizens of 
Brooke, I am satisfied, could not have found in the 
county a more influential and watchful guardian of 
their interests. Tell Sister Mary she has reason to 
be proud of the first impression which her husband 
makes as a politician. If I mistake not, the people 
will want him for their service in the future. Some 



440 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

gentlemen of the press here are getting up a little 
volume of sketches of the members of the conven- 
tion, and I slipped into their hands a little pen 
sketch of Mr. Campbell's characteristics, which will 
do him more justice than would likely have been done 
him by strangers. I felt it due to him, and was 
gratified to have the opportunity to do it. He, of 
course, knows nothing about my hand in the mat- 
ter." 

"I often think of the proverb, 'Whatever your 
hand findeth to do that do as with all your might. ' 
After all, it is the surest way of usefulness. To re- 
fuse to do a good work merely because it is not ex- 
actly in the line of some technical profession is to 
narrow powers, which are many-sided and capable 
of all work, down to the criterion of the professional 
drudge. God attends to all things, and no human 
interest ought to be above or beneath the thought or 
the feeling or the helping hand of any one whom 
the Creator has endowed with faculties fit for its 
accomplishment. This general principle has regu- 
lated my life, and I desire still to spend it as best I 
can in the widest usefulness which may call me into 
service." 

"Our children! Will they rise up and call us 
blessed in the sweet evening of our finished course? 
Let us pray for it with a life which shall itself be a 
loving prayer!" 

He is in Charleston, superintendent of schools. 
He tells of a boil on his nose: "I bid its exit most 
gracious speed. It is one of the cases in which, 
whilst I could not welcome the coming, I do most 
cordially speed the going guest." He says, "I have 



INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 441 

a quiet time o' nights — read — write — think — and 
then^ — retire." 

In all the letters, when absent from home, he 
sends remembrances to each of the family by name, 
and never omits the servants. "lyct all the domes- 
tics know that I send a kind word of reofard for 
them." "Name me kindly to the servants." 

A man in his employ is sick, and he writes Mrs. 
Pendleton, who is away from home: "Frank has 
been much worse, and seems to be rapidly sinking. 
I should not be surprised if you never see him 
again. I understood that he has been very anxious 
to have his little children that are buried in the 
churchyard removed to the college cemetery, and 
spoke to him about it, assuring him that it should 
be done. He burst into tears, and said, 'Do you 
say it shall be done?' I replied, 'Yes.' 'All right,' 
said he, 'I know it will be done if you say so. You 
have always been my best friend — a good friend to 
me.' I told him he had always been a good friend 
to me. He replied, 'I have always done my best 
for you; and you have always been true to me.' 
Poor fellow! It is a hard trial for him to die. His 
wife is quite broken down of late. She has had so 
much care with her little boy that I wonder she has 
time to feel about anything else. But she seems to 
realize the dreadful bereavement that is falling upon 
her, and her heart is quite overcome by its near 
approach." 

"Mr. Brown called in his whitest cravat. If his 
knees did not make so acute an angle when he is 
seated, he would be less picturesque." 

"Surely the Hudson is the grandest river in the 



442 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

world! The Palisades, the heights, the Catskill 
Mountains, the palaces, villas, cottages, thrifty- 
towns, clear, deep waters and moving life of boats 
by wind and steam, all combine to make up a min- 
gled effect of nine hours' magnificence and beauty 
that leaves the soul satisfied with the pleasures of 
the eye." 

Mrs. Pendleton is on a visit to Virginia; Birdie is 
housekeeper, and he writes, November 27, ^"j']^ of 
her and the rest: "She is indeed a prodigy of a 
girl. Keeps house like an experienced matron, and 
keeps everything else with the skill and mastery of 
a general. All the dear children are good. Kent 
is lively and obliging as he can be, and dear little 
Dwight's reasonable 'All right,' seems sweeter than 
ever since we have had to give him several doses of 
castor oil. Birdie has told you he has been sick, 
but it was very slight and he seems to-night entirely 
recovered. He has been up and playing in the 
house all day, and is sweetly sleeping in your sitting 
room in his crib. 

"Yesterday, Monday, Prof. Kemper yielded his 
long resistance to the Gospel, aud had a full and 
free talk about his convictions, and this evening we 
were made glad by his public confession of the 
Savior. I baptized him at 3:30 this p. m. The 
students all turned out, and there was a deep im- 
pression made by his manly avowal of his faith. I 
rejoice to see any soul turning to the Savior, but it 
was a peculiar gratification to witness the confession 
of our dear professor. He has talents for eminent 
usefulness and a noble conscientiousness in all mat- 
ters of duty." 



INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 443 

He is State Superintendent of Schools, and at 
Wheeling. To Mrs. Pendleton, December 18, ^']']': 
"I pray for you and myself in all that I desire we 
may be to each other and to our children, and I 
know that if blessings come not in answer to such 
request, the reason must lie at our door. Have we 
not been blessed? If my life has been one of hard 
labor in the public service, is not that reason to be 
thankful? What ought one to desire more than to 
be able to serve and to have his services constantly 
called for? How many are there who seem to be 
eager to get into places of labor and who yet are 
never called or chosen! I try to be ready for what- 
ever station Providence may assign me, neither self- 
ishly to seek nor faithlessly to decline any work laid 
upon me. This has been the feeling and the rule 
of my life so far, and let it be still." 

"A bevy of boys all over old Virginia in their 
manners and hearty kindness." 

"O the beauty and blessedness of our child-life! 
How it luxuriates in the richness of its own fancy 
and builds for itself the airy castles of aspiring hope! 
Well, it is a long way back to that day with me, 
counting by the calendar, but in sympathy with my 
dear boys it seems very near, and 'I see the heavens 
laugh with them in their jubilee; my heart is at 
their festival, my head hath its coronal, the fullness 
of their bliss, I feel it all.' " 

"A. and Mr. B. are recognized as affianced, and 
there seems to be no disposition to deny it by any- 
body that has a right to know. So you see 'biz' 
prospers in spite of your absence, and somebody 
else is taking up your occupation. It is too bad 



444 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

that you are not here to see and enjoy so mucli hap- 
piness." "Wouldn't our green grass look bright 
with a quarter dozen grandchildren in red moving 
about in it! This is a picture for next summer." 

"Mr. and Mrs. I^amar will tell you all about the 
convention and how everybody missed you, and 
talked about William II. The little brat! How 
little he knows about the interest he is exciting all 
over the land. David says in his letter, 'Congratu- 
lations are profuse with the tribe here on your 
grandson. God bless him and the young mother.' 
We all, and everybody, seem anxious to say 
'Amen!' " 

"This p. M. Kent went out with his gun and 
killed a rabbit, and had it prepared for my supper 
when I got back from Wellsburg. I think he will 
manage to get something as his personal greeting to 
you when you get home. He has so much thought- 
ful, human kindness in him, and has so much enter- 
prise, and is so thoughtfully polite one cannot help 
but admire his manliness." This October 24, '82. 

"King has closed his meeting at Lawrenceburg, 
Ky., with twenty-two additions, having done most 
of the work himself. Noble boy, how he loves his 
Master's work! I am thankful and glad that he has 
the encouragement of success. It will excite him 
to greater hopefulness and faith in his labors." 

"I have been reading Jules Verne's 'Twenty 
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' to the boys, and 
have just sent them to bed asking, like Oliver, 'for 
more.' " 

To Mrs. Pendleton, January 21, '84, from Wash- 
ington, D. C. : "I went yesterday with Col. Cary 



INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 445 

and good old Dr. Power to Fred's to dinner. We 
had only time to eat and hurry back to the church 
for communion. It was protracted to after five 
o'clock. I walked with Becky over a mile to their 
comfortable home, 72 K Steet N. W., and found 
I^ottie and her husband waiting to see me. At seven 
we returned to church; that is, L,et and Becky and I, 
and after an hour's sermon from Prof. L., we walked 
back to No. 72, a mile. So you see I had exercise 
enough. In the morning I had a literal jam. Fred 
P. said in front and rear and everywhere there must 
have been 1,500 people. President Arthur and Sec- 
retary Frelinghuysen were present, and many con- 
gressmen, among them Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, 
whom you met at Gen. G's once. I have never 
given so much satisfaction. I took forty-five min- 
utes to read it, as the audience was large. I was 
assured that every word was heard by everybody, 
which was not the case with any other speaker or 
participant in the exercises. Many of our most crit- 
ical brethren said, 'Nothing could have been more 
appropriate or better done.' I was surprised at this, 
because you know how miserably out of tune I was 
while writing it." 

"Brother Woolery gave us an excellent sermon 
to-day. I think he is steadily growing as a preacher, 
and I pray that he may be steadfastly held up both 
by the Church and the college." May 27, '85. 

From Eustis, Fla., May, '86: "There never was 
a healthier community than this. The doctors 
look as listless, dreamy and idle as a company of 
lotus eaters." 

"Saturday night brought letters from you to Phil, 



446 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Kent and D wight, and it would have delighted your 
heart to see the circle around the lamp in the parlor 
poring over your dear inditings. What a treat to 
us all! All Scripture by a mother is good for chil- 
dren such as ours. Therefore, write." 

From Bethany, June 24, 1892, to Mrs. Pendleton 
in Florida: "This is a lovely morning, and the air 
is full of the songs of many birds. It rains almost 
every day, and I never saw more luxuriance on the 
face of nature. Except the birds, nothing seems to 
be astir as yet. The college grounds stretch out 
before me, and the close-cut grass lying in vistas 
under the heavy foliage of the trees makes a lovely 
carpet for the undulating surface. The little town 
is very quiet. Many are gone, and the rest are in- 
dulging in the unwonted freedom from all calls of 
duty. Mr. A. Campbell and his son, Aleck, are off 
at Chicago attending the National Convention of 
the Democratic party. The air is full of politics, 
municipal, state and national. Almost every officer 
is struggling for a renewal of his term of service, 
and the cauldron boils with big bubbles and small, 
day and night. What a mixture of emotions, grave 
and gay, is at play in the tumult! The old forget 
the verge they are standing over in the rush of the 
young life that is struggling for the flitting prizes 
that are springing up before them, and shout and 
hurrah with the enthusiasm and passion of children. 
True, 'the things that are seen are temporal,' but it 
is equally true that we give the time, old and young 
alike, whether it be long or short, to looking at 
them and enjoying them. How few duly contem- 
plate the things that are not seen! 



INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 447 

"Here, as elsewhere, they are marrying and giv- 
ing in marriage. After supper yesterday Cammie 
and myself called to see Prof. Dowling and family, 
who start in a day or two for California. You know 
he has resigned his professorship to devote himself 
wholly to the ministry. When we entered his par- 
lor we found it crowded with goods packed for ship- 
ping, but there was room enough for us and the 
family, with four others from Wellsburg, to whom 
we were introduced. We soon noticed that conver- 
sation was constrained and embarrassed, and tried to 
enliven it. But there was no sympathy in the effort. 
Presently one of the two gentlemen (there were also 
two ladies) said to Prof. Dowling, 'We are in a little 
hurry to get through and return.' 'All right, all 
right,' muttered the professor, and approaching the 
back of the young man's chair he threw his arms 
over his shoulders and said, 'Ah, hem, ah, my 
young friend, Mr. L. here — and, ah. Miss M., who 
sits beside him, have come out — ah — to — to — get 
married, and as it is rather crowded in here, we 
were just about to go over to Aunt Sophie's parlor, 
when you came in to attend to the — ah — the — the 
matter — there; and won't you go over with us and 
witness the ceremony?' The invitation was very 
cordial, but there was a flash of lightning and a loud 
roll of thunder that gave us good excuse for declin- 
ing it, and we took our leave with warm congratula- 
tions in advance. But the room was poorly lighted, 
and in the confusion into which the guests were 
thrown in rising to take leave, I congratulated the 
wrong young man, much to the amusement of every- 
body." 



448 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

From Washington City, en route, where he arrives 
after a night's travel, June, '93: "Have stood the 
trip well, and have slept profoundly and with im- 
provement in my feelings. But dear George, our 
little gentleman, has been with me all the way, and 
here in this city more than ever. It is a sweet pres- 
ence, but not such as we were wont to embrace, and 
his spirit evades our longing desire to receive some 
earthly lifetime embrace. It is not 'the touch of a 
vanished hand — the sound of a voice that is still.' 
God help us to rise into his higher life! Why not? 
The Savior is there, and so many others — a mighty 
cloud of witnesses. I will not dwell upon this. We 
must wait for time to blend the memory with the 
hope, both of which are sacred and sweet, through 
the Gospel." 

From Bethany after commencement, '95: "It is 
now seven o'clock, and scarcely a sound save that of 
birds breaks the morning stillness. I am writing 
upstairs in Cammie's north room, and the grand old 
hill we have so often 'climbed together' reminds me 
of those far-off days just before the coming of our 
noble Birdie, .... I think 'what a pleasure 
it would be to walk over these scenes once more 
with you and Birdie, and take an affectionate fare- 
well of them forever.' I wonder if from the shining 
shore it may not be a pleasure reserved for us to 
have some sweet back vision of the days that are no 
more. I feel this morning that nothing could be 
sweeter, more charmingly idyllic." 

From Bethany, June 30, '96: "My dear wife: I 
am looking out this morning over the valley of 
Buffalo, looking as you and I saw it one happy 



INTER FOLIA FRUCTUS 449 

morning more than forty years ago. You remember 
that early horseback ride, and how we passed 
through and above that flood of silver that filled the 
valley with lustrous lakes and islands of dripping 
green, up into the golden sunlight that covered all 
with a promise of a glad and blessed day. I wish 
you were here that we might see together this living 
picture of that far-back morning, and once more, 
before we go to our eternal home, renew on earth 
the memory and the hopes of the hour, and feel 
again its inspiration. When our children are scat- 
tered, it looks as if the unity of life were broken 
that we might give ourselves to the preparation for 
another start towards a city whose foundations shall 
never be moved and where partings shall be no 
more. How we linger on the division line! Truly, 
there is yet a Jordan to pass, and we linger on its 
brink. As I look up from my page, the silver lakes 
are gone, but the hills remain, and they are green 
and covered with luxuriance of life, but they are 
steep and hard to climb. Yet I see around the steep 
sides smooth roads are cut, and up the lifting 
heights, winding in easy grades, ways of mounting 
and surmounting are winding in inviting curves, 
and we have only to rise and run, and the race by 
patience can be won. 

"A little bell calls me, and I must not keep them 
waiting. I^et us sit down to breakfast together — 
Catherine, and Mary, and Jean, and you and I, and 
wish a happy breakfast to all the rest. 

^'■Bon jour^ ma chere amie. 

<'W. K. P." 
29 



CHAPTER XXXV 
AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 

Fi^ORiDA is tlie largest in area of the States east of 
the Mississippi. Like Scotland, it is a land of 
water, with 1,148 miles of seacoast and 1,200 fresh 
water lakes, varying in size from Okechobee, or 
Big Water, with its 1,000 square miles, to the hum- 
blest lakelet of a few acres. It rejoices in such 
euphonious waters as Kissimmee, Tohopekaliga, 
Apopka and Miccasukee. It has ever been a fasci- 
nating region. Ponce de Leon, hunting for the phan- 
tasmal island of Bimini, with its fountain of youth, 
landed just north of St. Augustine Easter Sunday — 
Pascua Florida — March 27, 151 2, and the Spaniards 
for more than a century after claimed as Florida all 
the territory as far north as Virginia and as far west 
as the Mississippi. For two hundred and fifty years 
Spain held this fair peninsula, then traded it with 
Great Britain for Cuba in 1763, and Great Britain 
again swapped it with Spain for the Bahamas twenty 
years later, and in 1821 it became by cession from 
Spain a part of the United States. Twenty-four 
years after it added a star to the flag. 

In the most beautiful section of semi-tropical 
Florida is Lake County, formed in '87 from portions 
of Orange and Sumter. It is so called from the 
picturesque group of lakes covering nearly one-sixth 
of its surface. It is one of the highest elevations in 
the State, nearly five hundred feet above tide water, 

450 




ON THE rock:, 

Near Uniontown, Pa., Aug. 33, '95, where Campbell 

Preached Sermon on the Law Sept. 3, 1826. 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 451 

and on the divide of the Floridian Peninsula — 
streams flowing to the ocean through the St. Johns, 
the Withlacoochee and Kissimmee, and to the Gulf 
by way of Lake Okechobee and the ^Everglades. 
Here is Florida's most healthful region. The shores 
of these lakes are everywhere remarkably beautiful, 
and the land highly productive. Here is the world- 
famed Orange Belt. Oranges and lemons, shad- 
docks and grape fruit and citron, guavas and figs, 
bananas and pineapples are found here in their finest 
development. Ten millions are invested in orange 
groves, yielding yearly a crop of a million and a 
quarter of crates, of $2,000,000 value. A single 
grove in this fair region of 185 acres on Orange Lake, 
had 30,000 trees which yielded in a single year 
32,000 crates, selling for $65,000, and from a single 
tree in one year ten thousand golden spheres have 
been gathered. 

In the heart of this region is the town of Eustis, 
situated on the St. John and Lake Eustis railroad, 
and occupying a commanding position overlooking 
the lake of the same name. Back of it the hill 
region is thickly studded with lakes, while upon the 
high pine lands surrounding these inland waters are 
beautiful homes, embellished with all the shrubs and 
flowers of this fair region. Green groves appear on 
every side with their golden fruit. The traveler 
comes from the inhospitable region of frost, lands at 
Jacksonville, the chief commercial center of this 
land of flowers, and as he finds June in January, dis- 
cards his overcoat, and bids good-by to his steamer, 
he sings. 



452 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

"Yon deep bark goes 
Where trafl&c blows 
From lands of sun to lands of snows — 
This happy one, 
Its race is run, 
From lands of snows to lands of sun." 

Here he finds himself among orange orchards, 
trees the most beautiful of all fruit-bearers the year 
round, with their perfect form, clear, bright bark, 
and dense, glossy, evergreen foliage, with hundreds 
of thousands of bright yellow globes of fruit in 
season, contrasting with their deep green setting, or 
on each twig clusters of waxy bridal blossoms which 
perfume the air, filling him with intoxicating de- 
light. Here he learns the virtues of Nonpareils and 
Magnum Bonums, Homossases, Mediterranean Sweets 
and Majorcas, Navels, Mandarins and Tangerines — 
the citriis aurantiu^n of two hundred and fifty varie- 
ties. Here he acquires the art most difficult of arts, 
the art of eating, an orange, for instead of ripping it 
open and squirting juice over everything and getting 
fingers soiled, and flecks of the yellow sacs bedaubed 
over mustache and whiskers, to enjoy the king of 
fruits he walks out beneath the verdant tree, 
chooses a medium size thin-skinned russet, pulls it 
hard till off it comes, leaving a hole at the stem, 
pares it as he would an apple, cuts it into halves 
crossways, and sucks from- the ruptured cells nectar 
fit for the gods. 

To this delightful region Mr. Pendleton came in 
March, 1886, purchased property first at DeLand, 
two orange groves, and then two groves at Kustis, 
where he built his home. The change from the rig- 
orous winters of Bethany to this sunny clime was a 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 453 

genuine benefit to Lis physical health, and the cul- 
ture of the Florida fruits a charming occupation for 
both body and mind. His groves yielded generously 
and gave promise of increasing returns, when the 
cold came down from Montana, and ice formed on 
shallow waters as far south as the twenty-seventh 
parallel. Millions were lost by the freeze. Many 
became discouraged, sold their lands for a song, and 
left the State. It was a terrible set-back to the 
orange industry. Still, thousands of the fruit grow- 
ers were brave and felt the losses could be redeemed. 
Once more they started to recover their fortunes. 
Then came the black day, December 29, 1894, the 
coldest since February 8, 1835, the St. Johns river 
being frozen over, the orange crop valued at 
$4,000,000 totally destroyed, and the beautiful 
groves killed to the ground. 

The Pendleton home at Kustis overlooks the lake 
and is constructed with a hexagon hall running up 
three stories, with a tower opening on the third 
floor, affording a beautiful view of the Apopka 
mountains, and seven or eight beautiful blue lakes 
and a wealth of orange groves and pine woods. On 
the first floor are six large rooms. The house is 
after Mr. Pendleton's own plan and enriched with 
many windows. In front is a large orange grove, 
and at the back a lovely lake with boat-house and 
boats, and fine angling, twenty bass to the hour be- 
ing a fail catch for any ordinary disciple of Sir Izaak 
Walton. In the boat-house there are about eight 
feet of clear water, with a bottom of beautiful white 
sand, and by feeding the fish each day the family 
soon brought together a large collection of various 



454 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

sizes and sorts, so tame that they would eat out of 
one's hand. It was Mr. Pendleton's delight to sit 
here with some one to read aloud to him, and watch 
the fish, turtles and even snakes that would often 
invade its waters. The lake was a source of unend- 
ing pleasure to him, until little George Paxton Pen- 
dleton, the son of H. King Pendleton, was drowned 
here, and after that he lost interest in it. The death 
of his little grandson occurred in '93, and he writes 
his daughter. Miss Cammie, May 9th: "The boys 
have no doubt informed you, as I requested them, of 
the drowning of our dear little George last Saturday, 
the 6th instant. He and his little sisters had gone 
down to the lake to take their Saturday evening 
bath in the care of two grown people. The shore of 
the lake is for acres smooth and so gently inclined 
that it was scarcely reasonable to think there could 
be any danger. We thought we knew every foot of 
the bottom, and that it was uniformly smooth, but 
there was a hole about four and a half feet deep, 
and into this our dear boy stepped and was drowned. 
We recovered his body so soon that there was great 
hope of his restoration, and we worked for it wisely, 
skillfully and long, but in vain. He had scarcely 
entered the water till he quietly strayed off from the 
rest in a most unwonted way, and walked straight 
out and farther than we have ever known him to go, 
directly to this hole. My soul has been sorely per- 
plexed over this providence, but I must think the 
I<ord took this as the gentlest, best way to remove 
him — that it was the Lord's doing — and this com- 
forts me. But still, dear child, 'I am bereaved.' I 
doubt not that if I open my soul to the holy angelic 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 455 

influences that are provided for us in the heavenly- 
ministry, he will be to us still a presence of blessed 
joy and sweetness, and draw us more to the realities 
of the unseen world. We have his dear body sealed 
up in a casket awaiting King, who is to be here to- 
morrow, Wednesday, night, and if he will consent, 
we will make a little water-tight bed for him in our 
yard and lay him to sleep amid the bright flowers 
he so particularly loved. I cannot write more this 
morning. Pray for us — for your poor mother, the 
light and the joy of whose life seems to her as yet 
to have utterly gone out. Lovingly your father, 
stricken but comforted, 

"W. K. PENDI.ETON." 

When building the Eustis home, Mr. Pendleton 
said: "I want a place where the tired preachers 
who have to go to Florida for health or vacation, 
can find a haven of rest, and for the boys who may 
want to visit me, and my many friends." He 
writes, May 27, 1891, to Miss Cammie: "Your 
mother is deeply interested in watching the progress 
of the house, her turkeys, ducks, chickens and the 
dogs, and is so deep in concern about this large and 
helpless family that she is compelled almost to for- 
get herself. Catherine and Mary are two beautiful 
and sweet children, and keep us both in active sym- 
pathy with the beauty and loveliness of child life. 
It keeps our hearts young to have the care of 
them." 

At the time of his settlement at Eustis there was 
no church there of the Disciples of Christ. He was 
by no means inactive, however, in Christian work. 



456 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

For several years lie attended the other churches, 
often preaching for them. His character and ability 
were universally recognized, and many v/ho had 
never heard of the religious people with whom he 
was associated, began to make inquiry concerning 
their teaching and practice. Some became deeply 
interested, and at their earnest request he baptized 
eight persons in the lake back of his home. In 
1894 Z. T. Sweeney held a meeting there, which 
resulted in the organization of a church with forty 
members. Later, P. A. Ross, mayor of the town, 
united with the little band, and C. E. Powell served 
for a time as pastor. The church was organized in 
a large tent furnished by Mr. Pendleton and J. C. 
Jackson. They met also in a hall, and a house of 
worship was erected in 1894 at a cost of $7,000, the 
main audience room being dedicated Easter Sunday, 
1895. The center window, a beautiful work of art, 
has this inscription: "W. K. Pendleton, LL. D., 
with love from, the church and his many friends." 

Here he did much of the preaching. The church 
only part of the time could employ a pastor, and he 
served as elder, and for the most part as their regu- 
lar minister. His preaching at this time is said to 
have been more effective than at any period of his 
ministry, and his growth and ripening in all the 
graces of the spirit were readily observed by those 
about him. 

Mr. Pendleton's sermons are prepared with great 
care. Sometimes a few brief notes answer his pur- 
pose; usually a page of foolscap closely written; 
and not infrequently, on special themes, the dis- 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 457 

course is written out in full. Here is one of his 
short skeletons: 

''The Glorification of Humanity in Christ. 

"I. The heathen view of man. No true person- 
ality. No future destiny. No personal glorifica- 
tion. 

*'II. The Christian view of man. By creation 
in the image of God. By sin fallen from his primi- 
tive estate. By the redemption of Christ restored. 

"HI. The different destiny." 

Another one: 

"The fool hath said in his heart there is no God 
(Ps. xiv. I and liii. i). These Psalms almost iden- 
tical. 

"I. The presumption of the assumption. One 
must be as God to know that there is no God. 
Omniscient, Omnipresent. Yet striplings of an 
hour. Anecdote of Coleridge. 

"H. It is unreasonable in its claim of sensible 
demonstrations. Illustrate by the difference be- 
tween effects and the powers that produce them. 
Faraday concluded that the force (electrical) which 
holds a single drop of water together = 800,000 
charges of his most powerful Leyden Battery. The 
force asleep in the Cloud. 

"III. Its violation of all our principles of rea- 
soning. A cause here, but there chance. A watch, 
a building, a ship. A system of army movements, 
the Iliad of Homer. 

"IV. It must find its origin in the heart, there- 
fore dangerous to society." 



458 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Here is a fuller brief on "God's Care for Us": 

*'i Pet. vs. 5-9. 

"It is consoling to every mind to know that some 
one careth for it. This arises, 

"ist. From love of sympathy. 

"2nd. From a sense of dependence, or weakness. 

"In either case the pleasure is heightened by the 
dignity and authority of the source from which it 
arises. 

"With the Christian it is God. 

"But only with such as are humble. He resisteth 
the proud. 

"lyct us place ourselves in humility before him 
this morning, and examine for a short time these 
precious words, He careth for you. The promise at 
once suggests a special providence for man with 
conditions. God does not care for us exactly in the 
same way in which he cares for the inanimate and 
the mere animal creation. For these, indeed, he 
cares also. The sparrow, oxen, he cares for. Young 
ravens he feeds. He careth for the order of the 
heavens, the seasons and fruitage of the earth. But 
by law and instinct he has placed these out of the 
range of moral conditions. He does not resist any 
class of these, because they are subject to law. 

"It is true God careth for man as for beasts. But 
the great concern is for the soul. The discipline 
and care are to fit it for future glory. If the body is 
preserved, it is that the soul may be saved. If we 
are fed, it is that we may be strong for useful work. 
If we are prospered with riches, it is that we may 
show ourselves good and faithful stewards of the 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 459 

treasure committed to us. The ox eats that lie may 
live and serve man and accomplish the end of his 
being in this. But man accomplishes nothing if he 
lives not for the glory of God. All things are for 
man, but man is for God. 

"We could not see the philosophy of a special 
providence for man^ if man were not free. It is this 
very power to break law, to reject instinct and 
choose a law of our own, to throw into the working 
of the universe a new and original power that modi- 
fies its motion, which renders the interference of 
God necessary. Hence the peculiar language of 
Scripture, in which God is said to resist the proud 
and to co-work with the humble. 

"Let us learn, then, that God's care for us may be 
relied upon when in humility we are seeking to 
serve him, and must not be looked to with arro- 
gance. He helps the man that helps himself. 

"i. It must not be expected except for the pur- 
pose of saving the soul. 

"2. You ask and receive not — because you ask 
that you may consume it upon your lusts (Jas. iv.3). 

"3. That in this spirit and with our own honest 
co-working we may rely upon — 

"To preserve our persons or lives. 

"To feed and clothe us. 

"To deliver us from enemies. 

"To fill us with spiritual comfort. 

"To raise us above the fear of death. 

"To give us victory over the grave. 

"To crown us with eternal life, etc." 



46o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Here is a Baccalaureate preached June 15, 1879, 
to the twenty-three graduates of the 38th session of 
the college: 

"i Tim. i. 18-20. 

*'I select these words of the heroic apostle as sug- 
gestive of the feelings which move me towards you 
to-day. 

"We feel as if we were commissioning you for a 
high service for God and the world, and we would 
exhort you to 'war a good warfare.' 

"And, in the outset, let me impress upon you this 
high, chivalric conception of the apostle of a true 
man's life. It is not a lazy, dreamy, pietistic, 
psalm-singing inactivity. It is a grand warfare. 

"He lays hold of the imagery of worldly contests 
and clothes its material metaphors with the rela- 
tions of a sublimer strife. He recognizes two pow- 
ers — God and Christ, and Satan. These at war, and 
man the prize, and himself a free agent. 

"This, a prominent feature in the symbolic and 
typical teaching of the Old Testament. God's 
great men are warriors — Joshua, Gideon, David. 
God's service, sublimest and most heroic, in the 
battlefield, striking down God's enemies. 

"This your business. 

"How shall you prosecute? 

"I. In faith. 

"II. Good conscience. 

"i. In faith. — We notice how powerless God's 
heroes always feel, save in his strength. — Illustrate. 

"2. In good conscience. — These go together. 
The heart must be with the head, and the head with 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 461 

the heart. We send you forth according to the 
prophecies which go before you." 

Here again is a practical talk on "The Necessity 
and Character of Christian Watchfulness": 

"i Pet. iv.7. 

"/«. Explain the term. It assumes danger. 
Keeps awake. Forecasts the schemes of assault. 

"I. Its necessity. 

"i. We are environed with evil. The world is 
at war with us, and we are in league with it, against 
our own souls. The lusts of the flesh, the eye and 
the pride of life. Sweet indulgence of animal pleas- 
ure. The giddy enticements of social displays of 
vanity. The loftier lures of ambition. Our sinful 
hearts are lulled to sleep, or are blinded by curious 
gazing, and we neglect to watch. 

"2. All these forces are marshaled against us by 
an ever-vigilant foe. Satan goeth about seeking 
whom he may devour. Consider how he manages 
them. Ex. Job. 

"Sisera sleeps, not seeing the hammer and the 
nail in Jael's hand. 'Hannibal is at the Gates,' was 
enough to wake up Rome. Eirebells of a be- 
leaguered city. 

"II. Our watch must be all-sided. 

"i. We must realize that dangers are within 
and without, and all around. How a city may be 
taken on its strongest side. Illustrate this false 
confidence by ^sop's fable of the one-eyed doe, 
feeding beside the ocean with her blind eye next to 
the water. 

"2. That watchfulness against fleshly sins may 



462 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

lead to neglect of spiritual dangers — the fate of the 
hero in Maccabees, who was killed by the fall of an 
elephant he had slain. 

"3. It must be directed to, (a) Old sins, (b) Be- 
setting sins, (c) New sins. 

"III. It must be unto prayer. Self-reliance is 
itself a sin, and self-excuse equally so. We must 
both watch and pray. Notice God's method in 
nature. The hand of the diligent waxeth rich. 
God helps those who help themselves. 

"The two give us peace, joyful assurance. Lord 
Nelson's remark, when he had done all then he 
rested secure." 

A discourse on "The Way of Eternal Life" has 
this outline: 

"The Way to Eternal Life (Matt. xix. 16-26; 
Mark x. 17-27; Luke xviii. 18-27). 

"This is an inquiry which all men make. It 
comes from the idea of our immortality. It natural- 
ly leads us, in ignorance of God, to seek the means 
in our own doings. Hence the inquiry (universal 
and ancient) about the good (yio agatkon). Solo- 
mon in Ecclesiastes makes the inquiry (consider) 
and the conclusion, 'fear God,' etc. The heathen 
satirist Juvenal, mens sana in sano corpore. 

"The doctrine of Christ and Solomon is one, 'God 
is the Good' and in him alone can we find it, in 
keeping his commandments. 

"Compare this young ruler with others. Take up 
the decalogue and examine the audience by it. 

"Do you lack anything? — yes, this. You lack 
God. You feel this — in 3'our self-examination. 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 463 

"You will not come to God, because there is some- 
thing you will not give up." 

Another on "The Great Cloud of Witnesses'.' 
(Heb. xii.). 

"It is good for us to look at the lives of those who 
have gone before us in the world and to meditate 
upon their example. Looking over the past, vast 
clouds of conspicuous examples will come before us 
some will be good — some bad. It is good to con- 
sider both. 

"ist. The Bad. 

"(a) Oppressors, ist. As rulers. 2nd. As 
citizens. 

"(b) Men of violence and blood. Ist. Conquer- 
ors and warriors. 2nd. Murderers. 

"(c) Men of hypocrisy and guile, ist. Seduc- 
ers of the innocent. 2nd. Defrauders of orphans 
and the helpless. 

"Consider all these grouped under the figure of a 
midnight assembly of furies. Their place as hell — 
their rage as fire — and their society as torment. 

"2nd. The Good. 'The memory of the just is 
blessed.' 

"(a) Public benefactors. Founders of colleges, 

schools, hospitals. 

"(b) Preachers of righteousness, reformers, mar- 
tyrs. 

"(c) Men of faith — Christ the apx^^s prince 
and finisher. 

"Consider these as individuals, in groups — like 
Nebulse, and in a great cloud — in their place before 
the throne of God. Where shall we stand?" 



464 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Usually his sermon notes have the hymns indi- 
cated and Hebrew and Greek terms carefully written 
out in the original form, but he seldom indulges in a 
criticism of the text, and his matter is of the sim- 
plest and most unpretentious character. A whole 
volume of these sketches could be given which would 
be very profitable, but our space will admit of but 
one more on "Union With Christ": 

"Col. i. 27, 28. 

"The relation which the Christian sustains to 
Christ is the most intimate. It is closer than any 
other. Father and son, mother and daughter, hus- 
band and wife, vine and branches, foundation and 
building, body and members. 

"Described as (a) Christ in us (Eph. iii. 17 and 
text, Col. i. 27, 28). 

"Described as (b) One being in Christ. Paul of 
himself (2 Cor. xii. 2 and i Jno. v. 20). 

"i. We shall consider how we come into this re- 
lation. 

"2. How it is maintained. 

"3. The blessed consequences. 

"4. The state of those who are not in it. 

"I. We are not in it by nature, but sinful and 
under sin (Rom. v. 12). We are admitted into this 
union by favor, upon the condition of faith, repent- 
ance and baptism. By Faith (Rom. v. i). Re- 
pentance (Acts xi. 18), unto life (2 Cor. vii. 10). 
Unto salvation, baptism (Gal. iii. 27, 28). 

"II. We maintain the relation — 

"(a) By a constant exercise of faith (Eph. iii. 
16, 17, and Gal. ii. 20). 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 465 

*'(b) By daily repentance (Rom. viii. 13; Col. 
iii. 5). 

''(c) By daily obedience of all ordinances and 
precepts — prayer, praise, study of the word of God, 
the worship, the fellowship, the deeds of charity, 
the interests of the kingdom. 

"III. We are blessed in that — 

"(a) We are made new creatures (2 Cor. v. 17). 

"(b) We have given to us the Holy Spirit. 

"(c) We are treated as righteous (2 Cor. v. 21; 
Phil. iii. 9). 

"(d) Made free from condemnation (Rom. 
viii. i). 

"(e) Free from the dominion of sin (i Jno. 
iii. 6). Pardoned, justified, sanctified, filled with 
the hope of eternal life (i Jno. iii. 28). 

"(f) We love the brethren and seek communion 
with them. 

"Narrate briefly the result of an interview with 
the Baptists. 

"IV. Those out of this state are without all 
these, and lost." 

Shortly before he died, Mr. Pendleton said that in 
looking over his editorial career he had one end in 
mind, to polish and spiritualize the Church. His 
preaching all through his ministry shows this in 
view. His sermons dealt more with practical than 
doctrinal themes. At Eustis his preaching was em- 
inently spiritual. Indeed, there is something un- 
usually pathetic and beautiful about his work here — 
the grace with which this distinguished teacher, 
college president, leader and chief speaker in great 
30 



466 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

religious convocations, took up the service of a vil- 
lage pastor. It was eminently worthy of him. In 
his modest retirement he rendered as noble service 
as ever in the time of his greatest prominence. 
Whatever he did was well and faithfully done. 

An old graduate of Bethany was honored by the 
faculty with the valedictory of his class. He felt 
that valedictories were too often perfunctory per- 
formances, characterized by great sameness and lit- 
tle heart, and ambitious to do something out of the 
regular order he prepared an address which was en- 
tirely foreign to the subject, save with a word of 
farewell at the close, and submitted it to the faculty. 
A few days after, the president asked to see him in 
his office. "Your speech," he said, "is a very 
beautiful one, but hardly of the nature of a valedic- 
tory. Your friends, I fear, will be disappointed." 
The student was taken aback, as the sailors say, and 
explained why he had taken this new departure. 
"Yes," said the president kindly, "the ground is 
much worked over, but you know it is a mark of 
genius to touch the old spots and make them glow 
with new beauty. Now, these thoughts are very 
beautiful, but they are not suited to the occasion. 
Bows of red ribbon on a lady's mourning dress 
would be, in themselves, pretty enough, but they 
would be out of place. Let me advise you to re- 
write this speech or prepare another. You need not 
submit it again to the faculty. We will trust you 
to do it, and give you all the time you wish for its 
delivery." 

The young man took the pet child of his brain, 
the fruit of many days and nights of labor, and went 



AMONG GOLDEN SPHERES 467 

away somewhat crestfallen, and altogether amazed 
at the general obtuseness of the faculty, but had the 
good sense to follow the president's advice, and the 
valedictory was not a failure. 

It was a great lesson. It expressed a life princi- 
ple which governed the president himself from his 
boyhood to the close of his noble career. Day by 
day he did his work with a conscientious fidelity 
wherever he was placed. Everything that he 
touched he adorned. The genius that makes the 
old spots glow with new beauty was his, and the 
simple, uneventful, unheralded life among the 
orange groves and in the village church at Eustis 
was as perfect of its kind as the larger life at 
Bethany. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

THE GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING 
DAY 

The last days of our President were in many re- 
spects his best days. Growing old gracefully is a 
virtue. Our teacher lie is still in a greatly-needed 
lesson. Because he is coming to the limit of days 
granted by the Psalmist, he is not dropping out of 
sight and indifferent to the world's ongoings. All 
life's activities are full of interest for him, and his 
presence is felt in the councils of the Church, in the 
affairs of his fellows, in all the concerns of the com- 
munity of which he formed a part. One says of 
him: "He gave new life to Florida, urging the 
planting of shade trees, the beautifying of streets 
and yards, the planting of other things besides 
orange groves, that in the case of their failure the 
people might have other resources. He personally 
superintended all the work on six orange groves, 
and had others at a distance from Eustis which he 
visited often." Though far removed from it, he 
never for a moment lost interest in the college; he 
was always concerned for its welfare, always watch- 
ful of its policy. His whole thought and aim were 
the endowment of Bethany. His Florida home was 
purchased from the proceeds of a small investment 
in Kansas City, Mo., made through much difficulty 
and self-denial, but which had yielded handsomely, 
and now he said constantly to himself, "So many 

468 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 469 

trees, so many boxes to the tree, and so mucti a box, 
and all for dear old Betliany." It was bis happy 
dream till the cruel frost came and blighted it. He 
owned at one time thirteen orange groves. All were 
swept away but six. 

February 12, 1889, he writes his daughter. Miss 
Cammie: "My heart is with you all, and with the 
prosperity of Bethany, her people and the college. 
My interest in the town and in the citizens and the 
church is more than they ever knew or ever will 
know, but it is a satisfaction to me to feel it and to 
do what I can for their advancement." 

In February, 1890, he writes Miss Cammie: "Give 
my cordial greetings to all the good workers in the 
college. I am most thankful for the good provi- 
dence that has gathered so many noble spirits around 
her towers to defend and adorn them. There is 
nothing that I read with more pleasure than the 
Panhandle News, when telling of your life and work 
in the good old college. God bless her and make 
her every year better and nobler. Phil seems to 
have enjoyed his visit to Bethany very much. It 
gratifies me to see how strong a tie binds the noble 
sons of the college to one another. I trust the dear 
old halls and hills may ever be a Mecca to them, 
and that the annual festivities may be among the 
strongest attractions to bring them together in lov- 
ing fellowship. Please let President McLean know 
that I am proud of his success, and feel that he is 
the right man in the right place. I salute all the 
Faculty most lovingly." 

Again in May, 1899, he writes: "May God bless 



470 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

you, and disclose to tlie Board some way of restoring 
the college in her future." 

In the general movements of the brotherhood, 
also, Mr. Pendleton's interest during this period had 
in no sense abated. He attended every year the 
General Missionary Convention, and was always an 
aggressive force in its councils and labors. When 
stricken down, he was preparing to attend the Great 
Jubilee meeting of that body in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
He was President of the Florida State Missionary 
Society, and it was from exposure in attending a 
meeting of the State Board in '93 that the attack of 
la grippe was brought on, from which his friends 
dated the real beginning of the breaking down of 
his physical forces. A long and laborious journey 
was made by him in an open buggy with insufficient 
clothing for the unexpected change in temperature. 
From the illness that followed he never fully recov- 
ered. 

Previous to this Mr. Pendleton enjoyed a robust 
old age. In '86 and 7, when seventy years old, 
during a long illness of his daughter, Mrs. Lamar, 
he would carry her in his arms from her bedroom 
upstairs to a buggy, take a long drive, and on his 
return carry her up the front steps and the long 
stairway, and lay her on the bed without apparent 
effort. And his step was as buoyant as a boy's. 
He read habitually without glasses. His ears did 
their work perfectly. He went to a dentist but 
once in his life, and his teeth were all at his 
service. His defect of memory toward the last 
grieved him much. He had himself been so ready 
— so entirely master of himself. He rode horseback 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 471 

when nearly seventy. When lie was seventy-eight 
he ran down the steps and to the corner, bare- 
headed, to assist an old man three years his junior 
on the street-car, helped him in and gave him his 
cane, and then came walking briskly back again, 
while his family watched him in admiration. In his 
spirit and his interest in the affairs of the day he 
never grew old. 

To the last he was a student, with a mind insati- 
ably athirst for knowledge. All his life he had been 
a seeker after truth, and this instinct never failed 
him. Within a year of his death, while visiting his 
son, Phil, in Cincinnati, he complained that the 
electric lights were turned off at half-past three in 
the morning, the time he most needed them to see 
the pages he was reading. His sleep had been over 
long before that hour. His daughter, Mrs, Lamar, 
says: "I recall a visit I made to Florida just after 
the X-ray had been discovered. Only rumors had 
reached me, and in Florida they had heard nothing. 
Most of those to whom I told the rumor pooh- 
poohed it. There was nothing in it — there could 
be nothing. Not so, father. His mind took pos- 
session of it. He believed it and questioned me for 
every detail, trying to work up an hypothesis that 
would explain the process. He was fond of quoting 
a saying of Mr. Campbell that the time to learn is 
'when the mind inquires.' 

"Since my earliest childhood, if I ever went to 
him with a question on any subject, he first gave 
me the fullest, clearest answer his knowledge af- 
forded — usually a great deal more than I in my im- 
patience had time to take in. Then he would be- 



472 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

gin to look it up. For days after possibly, if tliere 
was enough in it to investigate, he would call me 
into the library to tell me what more he had learned 
on the subject; perhaps to correct a careless state- 
ment that he had made at first. Each time I would 
be sure we had got to the bottom of it, but in 
the lowest deep a lower deep would open, and 
he never left it till he knew all there was to be 
learned. And this method did not apply only to 
books. I used often to ride with him through 
the country. If we met a laboring man, or inquired 
our way of a fellow-traveler — if we stopped at a 
house for a glass of water, he would begin to 
talk to the person we met, asking questions, polite 
and interested, and before we left, if there was 
anything about the man or his work or his family or 
his farm that father did not know, it was because his 
interlocutor did not know it himself. I used to 
lean back in the buggy and wonder what interest it 
had for him. And all this took the form, not of in- 
discriminate information, but of accurate know- 
ledge. There are men with a memory, like a 
Mississippi pilot, whose minds are filled with heter- 
ogeneous facts that they have heard and 'can't for- 
get.' Everything in my father's mind was pigeon- 
holed in its appropriate nook ready for use at any 
moment. 

"I recall my despair when I came home from 
a journey, long or short, and attempted to describe 
anything I had seen or done. Perhaps I had antici- 
pated the catechism I would undergo, and had 
armed myself, as I supposed, at every point. In 
ten minutes father would brinsf out the fact that 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 473 

I did not know what I was talking about. I had 
overlooked this or that detail that I saw too late v/as 
necessary to fully understand the situation!" 

Mr. Pendleton seldom alludes to his age. In 
November, 1890, he visits Mount Eagle, and de- 
scribes the magnificent scenery in the Cumberland 
mountains, and a walk with his friend Judge Lea. 
"We had a long stroll through the forest of chestnut 
trees, and along the verge of precipices that over- 
hang the fertile valley which lies spread out below, 
in all the picturesque beauty of its streams and 
fields and homes, far as the eye can reach. We 
were two thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
yet above us the immeasurable dome of the sky rose 
in its calm majesty, in undiminished height of dis- 
tance and depth of mystery. Autumn was out in 
its ripeness and gorgeous robes of thanksgiving, and 
we two old friends and old men — just a year's differ- 
ence in our ages — in this wilderness of sublimity 
and beauty, stood with uncovered heads while the 
noble-hearted old judge repeated lyongfellow's Au- 
tumn with a feeling that gave to its beautiful rhythm 
the added charm of music. He told me that he 
taught it to his boys when they were children, and 
now that his Luke is gone from him he never recalls 
it without tears." 

Perhaps in his longing to have his dear ones 
about him may be seen as in no other way his 
growing consciousness of the westering days. Every 
summer found him going north to the old Bethany 
home to escape the heat of Florida suns. He writes 
Miss Cammie, December 11, 1895, "I cannot tell 
you how vividly and gratefully the days I spent 



474 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

witli yoii last summer live in my life. My thoughts 
are so often with you in your sweet loving home — 
such as you made it to me. This, and your bright 
visit to us last Christmas, are among the idyls we 
cherish. Your mother and I often recite them, 
after the 'In Memoriam' style of varied melodies, 
with a continuous undertone of the same sweet 
thought linking all into unity — the thought of your 
happy spirit and hopeful, useful life. Christmas is 
almost here again. Would you were coming with 
it to make it bright to us! We cannot now promise 
ourselves the pleasure of any of our children with 
us, but we will call you up in our hearts and 
give you the compliments of the season and the 
loving prayers we breathe for your welfare." 

His sunny, hopeful nature and radiant faith would 
never suffer even a momentary shadow to dim the 
future. Speaking of a dear friend who was so great 
a sufferer that she longed to be relieved by the only 
way of escape, he says, "It seems a dark way when 
contemplated in the clear light of health and physi- 
cal vigor, but is ever bright, I think, as our vision 
of the glory that lies beyond is cleared by the 
steadfast gaze that long and wearisome application 
induces. Peace be with her heart through all." 

The disastrous freeze came in the winter of '94 
and '95. There were two cold waves, one Decem- 
ber 28, and the other in the early part of February. 
In the first only the fruit was destroyed and the 
tenderest small shoots of the branches, but the 
total loss of the year's crop meant to a large major- 
ity of the whole population simply ruin, for their 
groves in many instances were mortgaged, and in 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 475 

others the owners had put their all into the costly 
fertilizers that \vere then supposed to be the only 
means of insuring the crop, and saw no outlook for 
the coming year. In addition, the loss of the citrus 
fruits at that time meant no work for the pickers 
and packers; it even touched the railroads. Cheer- 
fulness was one of the most fundamental of Mr. 
Pendleton's elements of character. It was not a 
reckless throwing off of anxieties in a determination 
not to think about them, because it would be so 
much pleasanter to forget them, but it sprang from 
his abiding faith in the eternal goodness of God. 
This disaster meant to him an almost crushing- 
blow. For some years before, both by the impossi- 
bility of collecting interest on investments and the 
necessity of outlay to preserve his groves from 
deterioration, he had been severely crippled, and he 
had seemed just a few hours before the frost on the 
point of relief from a crop just ready for shipment. 
This freeze was in the latter part of Friday night. 
In a few hours the destruction of fruit v/as total. 
On Saturday there were calls at the house all day, 
and one could readily note that the community had 
already learned his disposition in any time of trouble 
to turn the thoughts to reasonable grounds for hope- 
fulness. They came to him for comfort. He was 
under great physical depression. He was still 
feeble from the illness of the year before. He 
might well have felt utterly discouraged, but he 
spoke only words of cheer. 

It was still so cold on Sunday morning that the 
family thought he ought not to venture to go to 
church. In the upper hall where the little congre- 



476 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

gation met there were poor means of heating. Mrs. 
Pendleton had driven in to Sunday-school with 
King's little girls, and intended to remain for the 
church service, and Miss Cammie, who was visiting 
the Eustis home, remained to keep her father com- 
pany. Later in the morning, however, the sun 
came out, the day promised better than at first, and 
they went out for a few minutes in the yard. He 
looked up at the blue sky and said, "I believe I will 
go to church. I hate to be away from the people 
to-day; they are in so much trouble." Miss Cam- 
mie ran for her hat and wrap, and he put on his 
overcoat, and they walked in, a mile and a half, 
getting to the church just in time. The little con- 
gregation had no regular pastor, so that he was in 
the habit of preaching whenever occasion required. 
The sermon to-day was short, but nothing stronger 
in its faith or tenderer in its comfort could be 
spoken; no hand less than the loving Christ's 
touched more soothingly on bleeding hearts. It was 
a ruined little community. The people as they 
spoke to each other after the service tried to be 
brave and smile, but were heard here and there 
saying to each other it was so good that he could be 
with them that morning. 

One said of him, "When he awoke to the realiza- 
tion of the fact that he had lost many thousand dol- 
lars — the greater part of his property, in fact, by the 
freeze, he never seemed more happy and cheerful. 
He showed that he possessed that peace which pass- 
eth understanding. He knew how to abound and 
how to be abased." 

He is in Pittsburg the following summer, and they 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 477 

■wanted him at Cuckoo, but he writes: "Birdie is at 
Cuckoo, and is all out of spirits that she has not 
persuaded me to join her there. She draws lovely 
pictures to allure me, but they were not needed. I 
should have been too glad to go. But you cannot 
tell how strangely I am drawn homeward. All are 
so dreary there in the great desolation that has im- 
poverished so many homes and filled so many hearts 
with almost hopeless despair." 

Ready, cheerful submission to the will of God was 
one of Mr. Pendleton's chief characteristics. A 
serene and abiding confidence in God's goodness and 
love led him to cultivate a boundless charity for the 
weakness of others, and nothing is more marked 
than his faith in men. This was one of his strong 
points as an educator. No one thing was said often- 
er of him by old students who came back to the col- 
lege in after years than "He had faith in me. He 
saw the best in me, and encouraged me to think the 
best of myself, and aim at the noblest possible to 
myself." When he himself was wronged, even by 
wilful misrepresentation, he forgave deliberately, 
not in weakness but in strength. "If I had a 
grudge against one," he said in the pulpit on one 
occasion, "and wanted to make his life as miserable 
for himself and as unfruitful for good for others as 
possible, I should not know a better way than to fill 
his mind with low opinions and the irritation of per- 
petual resentments respecting others." 

This simple faith in God and men made him 
thoroughly appreciative of every kindness. In his 
friends he was happy, and in glad assurance that 
under God he had been able to do good to others he 



478 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

found his ricli reward. In September, 1898, lie is 
on a short visit to Dwight at Winchester, Ky., and 
writes: "Kentucky friends have simply overwhelmed 
us with affectionate kindness. So many grey haired 
fathers — students of long ago — expressed their 
thanks for all that has been noble in their life to our 
influence upon the college days. It is a gratifying 
return for the labors of long ago." "Take a sunny, 
hopeful view of things and work with and in faith," 
is his closing word when the troubles of the college 
are most grievous and depressing. 

Mr. Pendleton always returned to Bethany in June 
in time for the trustees' meeting and the commence- 
ment of the college. The old home was kept fur- 
nished, and he came with Mrs. Pendleton, and the 
children and grandchildren came together for more 
or less time. Friends also came. There was a 
household of fifteen or twenty, or more, and he en- 
joyed the little folks and all and everything. The 
summer of '89 was the last one at the old home. 
For a short time all the family were together, except 
Mr. Lamar, he being at the time in the Georgia 
Legislature, which was in a summer session. In 
September of that year, Pendleton Heights having 
passed into the hands of the college. Prof. Trible 
and family occupied it. Mr. Pendleton had reserved 
two acres for Miss Cammie, and that summer the 
foundations of her cottage were begun under his 
supervision. Here he afterward made his summer 
home. 

Between Bethany and Eustis Mr. Pendleton grew 
old peacefully, happily and usefully. Cicero wrote 
his De Senectute at sixty-three. Mr. Pendleton ex- 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 479 

perienced a score more of years in this calm, reflective, 
and holy period of human life, and could better tell 
the story. "Now the harvest of old age, as I have 
often said," writes Cicero, "is the recollection and 
abundance of blessings previously secured," This 
Mr. Pendleton understood, but he had more — the 
activities of life were still his, and the unfailing 
promise of a life to come. "It is not in the nature 
of the soul to grow old," says Dr. Holland. "It 
may grow in height and depth and breadth and 
power, but the passage of years can bring it no de- 
cay. Many an old man's and woman's face have I 
seen luminous with fires of youth outshining from 
the soul." People who stay away from old settlers' 
and old saints' meetings, and keep in touch on the 
one hand with young men and maidens and little 
children, and on the other with the angels of God, 
have discovered the fountain of eternal youth. Psa. 
xxxiv. 12-14 gives us the elixir of life. Much is 
said about the dead line in the ministry. "Shall the 
old minister be shot?" is a question seriously de- 
bated. Every man makes his own dead line. The 
preacher whose head is hoary with years can be a 
blessing or a burden as he wills. John Wesley 
preached an average of fifteen sermons a week. In- 
stead of breaking down under it, when seventy-three 
years old, he writes that he is far abler to preach 
than when three and twenty. His brow was then 
smooth, his complexion ruddy, and his voice strong 
and clear, so that an audience of thirty thousand 
could hear him without difficulty. This vigor he 
ascribed to continued travel, early rising, good sleep 
and an even temper. "I feel and grieve, but by 



48o LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

tlie grace of God I fret at nothing." When exceed- 
ingly old and infirm, and attended, almost supported, ' 
in the pulpit by a young minister on either side, he 
preached in chapels crowded to suffocation, and 
quoted with an application of his own the lines of 
Anacreon: 

"Oft am I by woman told, 
Poor Anacreon! Thou grow'st old: 
See, thine hairs are falling all: 
Poor Anacreon! How they fall! 
Whether I grow old or no, 
By these signs I do not know; 
But this I need not to be told 
'Tis time to live if I grow old!" 

All men and women make an idol of youth. It is 
time the world recognized its debt to age. How 
does Moses stand at eighty in Israel? What is the 
power of Paul the aged, the beauty of John under 
his crown of ninety years? What splendid forces 
are at work in what men are pleased to call "the de- 
cline of life" in Chaucer and John Milton and Sir 
Walter Scott, in Dryden, and Sir Christopher Wren 
and Benjamin Franklin! What an inspiring ex- 
ample in Socrates learning to play on musical instru- 
ments in old age; in Cato at eighty studying Greek; 
in Dr. Johnson in one morning of his advanced life 
amusing himself committing to memory eight hun- 
dred lines of Virgil; in Chatham at seventy thrilling 
the house v/ith his singularly eloquent, bold, ardent, 
and animated utterances; in Adam Smith reviewing 
his Sophocles and Euripides when an octogenarian; 
in Michael Angelo in extreme old age representing 
an old man in a go-cart with an hour-glass and the 
inscription, Ancora impa7^o — "Yet lam learning"; 



GLOW OF AUTUMN'S WESTERING DAY 481 

in Fontenelle at ninety-nine continuing his literary- 
pursuits, of whom it is beautifully said, ''Fontenelle, 
like our neighboring thorn, blossoms in the winter 
of his days"; and who, when an old lady of ninety 
said one day to him, "Death appears to have forgot- 
ten us," put his finger on his lips and whispered 
hastily, "Hush!" Where is there a sublimer figure 
in modern times than "the grand old man," Wil- 
liam E. Gladstone; and where a loftier conception 
than we have unfolded in that most Shakespearean 
of Shakespeare's dramas, that perfect fruit of the 
poet's maturest genius, that high lesson in the 
morals of the heart, King I^ear? And when the 
hoary head is found in the way of righteousness how 
striking then the old law written for Israel in the 
wilderness: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary 
head and honor the face of the old man, and fear 
thy God: I am the lyord." 

Sailors on a voyage will drink "Friends Astern" 
till half way over, then "Friends Ahead." With 
Mr. Pendleton for a long time it was "Friends 
Ahead." "The good mariner," says Dante, "when 
he draws near the port furls his sails and enters it 
softly. So ought we to lower the sails of our world- 
ly operations and turn to God with all our heart 
and understanding." As our President grew in 
years he grew in spiritual mindedness, in trustful- 
ness, in gentleness and loving kindness, in a divine 
optimism, in largeness and clearness of vision, in all 
the graces of the spirit of God. 

In these closing days his daughter, Mrs. lyamar, 
wrote to him in reference to the preparation of some 
history of his life. He replies: "I thank you for 

31 



482 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

your interest in 'some autobiographic notes.' Some- 
liow "when this matter is suggested to me, I ask my- 
self, who will care about them? And my vanity 
weakens a little at the presumption that is implied 
in such obtrusion. The subjective in me shrinks 
from a promiscuous audience. Still, I feel that it 
would be welcome to you and in your skillful hands 
might be made readable to others, and I will take it 
under consideration." It is a matter of profound 
regret that the "notes" were never written. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
COMMENCEMENT 

We have gotten well away from the original 
meaning of this word. Commencement day was the 
day when the student received his bachelor degree 
and commenced the higher studies to which it ad- 
vanced him. Now it marks the closing exercises of 
any school. There may be no degrees nor diplomas 
conferred, it may in no sense signalize the entrance 
upon fuller courses of study; it is simply the end of 
the school or college year. So a bachelor was one 
who had taken his first university degree in any of 
the faculties, and in the medieval university the 
term was applied to the apprentice for the degree of 
Master of Law, Theology or Medicine. To-day, the 
Baccalaureus is a graduate who, in most cases, in- 
stead of commencing, has finished his course, and 
commencement day to him is not the starting-point 
of the larger learning of the university, but of the 
active business of life. 

Our President is about to be advanced to the 
higher learning of the life everlasting, the courses 
of the celestial university for which he had so nobly 
fitted himself, the degree of Magister. The long 
earthly apprenticeship is closing. He is approach- 
ing the true commencement. Death is, after all, 
the Christian's vacation. School is out. We go 
home. An old schoolmaster, who had gone in and 
out before successive little flocks in the same place 

483 



484 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

for upwards of thirty years, -when the film of death 
was gathering over his eyes, which were soon to 
open in the presence of Him who took little chil- 
dren in his arms and blessed them, said: "It is 
getting dark — the boys may go out — school's dis- 
missed." 

A child, telling the Bible story of Enoch, said: 
"Enoch used to take long walks with God, and one 
day they went a long way, and God said, 'Enoch, 
you are far from home, and you had better go in 
with me,' and he went in with him." So simple 
was the home-going of the subject of these chroni- 
cles; such was his intimacy with God. Three verses 
of Scripture greatly comforted him in these closing 
days. He sent them to his lifelong friend, John B. 
Cary, in his last hours: "Because he hath set his 
love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set 
him on high, because he hath known my name. He 
shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be 
with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor 
him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show 
him my salvation" (Psa. xci. 14-16). 

C. R. Pattison, his brother elder in the church, 
the last time he saw him, called at his home, and 
during the conversation mentioned a text that was 
specially impressed upon his mind and heart: "I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, which the L^ord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not 
to me only, but unto all them also that love his ap- 
pearing." "Paul," said Mr. Pendleton, "could em- 
inently say that — can you and I? True, like Paul, 



COMMENCEMENT 485 

we are standing on the brink; we have had a varied 
experience, but not in the sense of the deep experi- 
ence and exultation of the great apostle." He was 
so full of the subject that, as he often did, he 
accompanied his friend to the gate, continuing to 
unfold the life, toils and triumphs of one who is 
wearing the crown of righteousness. 

In 1899 ^is increased feebleness was evident to 
all. During the spring of the year he preached reg- 
ularly for the church in Eustis. One lyord's day he 
had just delivered a beautiful sermon on the Master's 
word, "Take my yoke and learn of me," and was 
attending to the communion service. He had passed 
the bread, and laid his hand upon the wine, ready 
to pour it, when his son, Kent, who was acting as 
deacon, saw his hand tremble, and arose and went 
to him just in time to take him in his arms. He 
and A. P. Ross bore him in their arms to the 
pastor's study and laid him down, and in a few mo- 
ments, by the use of digitalis and ammonia, he was 
restored. He was to marry a couple as soon as the 
church service concluded. The bridal party sent 
word to ask if he would be able to attend to it, and 
he did so in less than an hour, and then was taken 
home, followed by many friends. He was advised 
not to speak again, and did not, except to address 
the students briefly and to deliver the diplomas at 
the Bethany commencement, which was his last 
public utterance. 

During these last days at Eustis he spoke often of 
attending the Jubilee Convention of the Disciples at 
Cincinnati, but feared his wife would not be able to 
go with him. Whenever he saw her busy doing 



486 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

anything, he would say, "Don't overdo yourself. 
Remember I want to have you to lean upon at the 
convention." He was told he had his boys. "Yes," 
he said, "that might do." 

In June, 1899, Mr. Pendleton made his last jour- 
ney to the scene of his great labors and achieve- 
ments. Mrs. Pendleton was unable to accompany 
him by reason of the illness of Kent's wife, but he 
always liked to feel his independence, and hesitated 
not to undertake the trip alone. To relieve the 
tedium of the travel and insure in a measure his 
safety, at each station that he stopped some one of 
his friends was written to and asked to meet him. 
When told of it, he said playfully, "Why don't you 
set a police force on my track?" And when he 
reached Bethany he wrote: "The police force was 
the best of many best things I have ever enjoyed. I 
do not know what I would have done but for their 
loving care. I can never forget the kindness that 
has been showered upon me by the police force." 

Washington was one of his stopping-places. 
Friends met him at the midnight train and tenderly 
cared for him. He was walking with a cane, and 
leaned heavily on the arm that was offered him. To 
those who knew him in his prime he seemed but the 
shadow of himself. There was the old light in the 
eyes, and the beautiful voice that never failed, but 
the earthly house was fast dissolving. They put 
him to rest, but could not themselves sleep, fearing 
he would not survive the hot summer night, he was 
so feeble. The next morning he was refreshed, and 
they sent him forward on his journey, but said, "He 
is going home to Bethany to die." 



COMMENCEMENT 487 

Wten lie reached the old place on Friday evening 
he was fearfully exhausted, but he slept well, and 
the next day seemed much stronger. The sight of 
the hills revived him, the flood of sweet memories 
quickened his spirit. In the history of the memora- 
ble retreat of the 10,000 Greeks under Xenophon, it 
is said that when they reached Mount Theches, from 
whence they descried in the distance the tremulously 
brif^ht blue of the waters that were to bear them 
home, in raptures of joy they instantly shouted, 
''Thalassa! Thalassa!"— The sea! The sea! There 
was one enthusiastic rush, one simultaneous cry; 
they embraced each other, and wept, and in a mo- 
ment the pang of discomfiture and the toilsome 
march of five or six hundred leagues were forgotten 
and repaid. When Sir V\^alter Scott returned from 
Italy, in sickness and mental affliction, and was ap- 
proaching his old home in Selkirkshire, the old 
familiar landma'rks seemed to recall him to his 
wonted animation. "That is Gala water — yon- 
der are the Eildon hills!" was his joyous exclama- 
tion. When at last Abbottsford appeared in sight, 
he became so excited that he desired to be raised up 
in the carriage that he might look upon his beauti- 
ful home. Yes, and Scott was going home to die. 
Our President was going home to live! 

On Sunday he attended the baccalaureate services, 
and on Monday morning, the last chapel service of 
the session, he went down to the college and made a 
short address to the students, standing erect and 
speaking in a clear, strong voice, as of old, and on 
Thursday he delivered the diplomas to the gradu- 
ating class, each with a benediction, "The Lord and 



488 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

his Clirist be with you!" That patriarchal figure 
and fatherly blessing could never be forgotten. He 
was given strength for this last participation in the 
work that he had so long loved and shared. Before 
the exercises closed he was very weary. There 
was never a time afterward when it would have 
seemed possible to him to endure so much exertion 
and excitement. 

Mr. Pendleton understood his condition perfectly, 
and explained it to his daughter, Miss Cammie, — the 
weak, uncertain action of the heart affecting all the 
circulation — as quietly as a physician, speaking of 
another person, could have done; but his hopeful 
nature allowed him to believe that he might get 
temporarily better. He greatly desired to be present 
at the Jubilee Convention in October. Although he 
grew steadily weaker, he had many better days, and 
he was almost always cheerful. The swelling in 
his feet and ankles made it difficult and exhausting 
to stand or walk. As he said, his feet were "in fet- 
ters." Sometimes he spoke with a pathetic wistful- 
ness, but never a complaint, of how he wished he 
might walk about. Often he expressed his thank- 
fulness that he possessed his mental faculties in 
clearness, that he could see and hear, and that he 
had no acute pain. Until the last three weeks he 
always dressed and came down to an early breakfast, 
remaining downstairs, but resting much of the time 
on a couch in the library until after supper. But 
this became more and more exhausting, and after 
August 1 2th he remained in bed. Toward the close 
he suffered much from weakness, from the weariness 
of having to lie always in the same position, and 



COMMENCEMENT 489 

from a parched moutli. It was the fear of those 
about him that at the last he might suffer from suffo- 
cation, for the tired heart beat ever more rapidly, 
intermittently and falteringly. But this was spared 
him. 

He called all his children to his bedside and said, 
"I wanted just to look at you." It had been a fear- 
fully hot day, and ended in a wild storm. He was 
always influenced by atmospheric changes, and his 
spirit passed gently away at the very beginning of 
this storm. About his bedside at the close were his 
son William, Mrs. Pendleton, Mrs. I^amar, Dwight 
and Miss Cammie. He had spoken a moment be- 
fore, when he fell asleep as gently as an infant 
lying in its mother's arms. An upward glance, a 
soft, satisfied sigh, and the pulse was still. 

*' As sweetly as a child, which neither 

Thought disturbs nor care encumbers; 
Tired with long play, at close of summer's day 
Ivies down and slumbers." 

It was SO fitting that he spent this summer at 
Bethany, and he felt so restfully the blessedness of 
the peaceful, quiet vacation days; the constant 
thought for him of old friends; the repose for eye 
and nerve of the leaves and grass, and the cool airs 
— all the familiar scenes of his active years of labor 
and of hope. He was not old. His mind was clear 
to the last; his heart full of love for God and man; 
his soul in perfect peace. 

September 3rd was a lovely sunny day, bright as 
the President's own hopeful nature, that was kept so 
to the last by his constant, all-illumining faith in 
the eternal goodness of God. All the family were 



490 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

there, save Kent, too far away in Florida to come. 
There was a great concourse of people. A. Mclyeau 
spoke the last words over the beloved form, and they 
were like apples of gold in pictures of silver. To 
the hillside where the dust of Campbell and Rich- 
ardson and others of his co-laborers had been gath- 
ered, his body was borne and laid away in the hope 
of the resurrection. The word of Job was realized, 
"Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as 
a shock of corn cometh in in his season." 

The death of Mr. Pendleton caused widespread 
sorrow. He had impressed himself upon thousands, 
and his friends were bound to him by hooks of steel. 
Special memorial services were held in Eustis and 
tenderest words spoken by the representative men of 
all the churches. All classes shared in the grief. 
In one of the town papers, this tribute appeared 
among others: 

"As a representative of my race, permit me to 
speak of the late Dr. W. K. Pendleton. The intel- 
ligence of the death of this worthy man was indeed 
sad news to all the colored people of Eustis and this 
vicinity. They know they have lost l. true friend — 
one who had proven so in. time of need. I knew 
him personally, having been employed at different 
times in his family, during a number of years. As 
a Christian I never knew a man more worthy the 
name. 

"He was always ready and willing to give advice 
and instruction to those who asked it, and no one 
ever went to Dr. Pendleton for such assistance and 
was denied, or failed to profit if his instructions 
were followed. He was a true and tried friend of 



COMMENCEMENT 491 

the colored people, and his acts of kindness will 
never be forgotten. The bereaved family have the 
sympathy of all of Bustis' colored people." 

Most of all in the great brotherhood of the Disci- 
ples of Christ was this loss felt. But as we adjusted 
ourselves to a world without Campbell, without Gar- 
field and without Krrett, so must we to a world 
without Pendleton. Others must take up the work 
where they left it. Our President's influence and 
spirit abide in the characters and lives of the multi- 
tude made better because he lived. "Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth" — that 
is, from the very moment of death — "yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their 
works do follow them." 

' ' I wage not any feud with Death. 

For changes wrought on form or face; 
No lower life that earth's embrace 
May breed with him can fright my faith. 

' ' Eternal process moving on 

From state to state the spirit walks; 
And these are but the shattered stalks, 
Or ruined chrysalis of one. 

" Nor blame I Death because he bear 
The use of virtue out of earth; 
I know transplanted human worth 
Will bloom to profit otherwhere. 

" For this alone on Death I wreak 

The wrath that garners in my heart: 
He put our lives so far apart 
We cannot hear each other speak." 



492 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

Of Mr. Pendleton's family, a word in closing. 
Mrs. Pendleton resides at Eustis, giving herself un- 
reservedly to good works. Living not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister to her numerous friends, 
her children and grandchildren, and to the little 
church where her revered husband did his last work, 
her life is a bus}^ and happy one. 

Alexandria Campbellina Pendleton, named for the 
great reformer, her grandfather, and better known 
and universally beloved as "Miss Cammie," is Pro- 
fessor of Modern Languages in the college. To 
the institution into which her father put his life, 
and the usefulness of which she prizes as he prized 
it, her services have been invaluable. To the writer, 
in preparing this volume, while all have been help- 
ful, her assistance has been indispensable. 

William Campbell Pendleton has his home in 
Warren, Ohio. He married Helen Austin, daughter 
of Harmon Austin, and is a manufacturer, ranks as 
a man of scrupulous integrity, and a public spirited 
citizen. 

Clarinda Pendleton Lamar, remembered so well 
as "Birdie Pendleton," is the wife of Joseph R. 
Lamar, a gifted and prominent lawyer of Augusta, 
Ga. She is a leader in society and in the church, a 
devoted wife and mother, a faithful Sunday-school 
teacher, a brilliant writer in the magazines of 
sketches of Southern life, a noble, symmetrical and 
cultured woman. 

Huntington King Pendleton is pastor of the Chris- 
tian Church, Tacoma, Washington. He is a preach- 
er of energy and enthusiasm, endowed with fine 
social qualities and business gifts, and has a flour- 



COMMENCEMENT 493 

isliing congregation. When a boy he was baptized 
by the writer of this history at the old Gilboa 
Church, and has proven himself, like his father, "a 
workman that needeth not to be ashamed." 

Philip Yancey Pendleton lives at Norwood, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. He is also a preacher, and has 
charge of the Christian Church on Walnut Hills. 
For many years he has worked on the Christian 
Standard, and prepared their Sunday-school Com- 
mentary. Possessed of a fine literary mind, he has 
a special turn for journalism, but is always an ac- 
ceptable preacher and naturally loves to preach, and 
those who hear him speak specially of the spiritual- 
ity and helpfulness of his sermons. 

Winston Kent Pendleton is pastor of the church 
at Mount Vernon, Ohio. He has been preaching 
only a few years, but is rendering most acceptable 
service. He has a talent for mechanical invention, 
and his powers of observation are unusual. Warmly 
enthusiastic for the growth of his church work, he is 
diligent and painstaking, and his influence for good 
is growing daily. 

Dwight Lyman Pendleton is the lawyer of the 
family, and practices his profession at Winchester, 
Ky. He is a successful business man, and a deacon 
of the church, and is actively interested in its work 
on all lines, especially temperance and good citizen- 
ship. He is a noble type of young manhood. 

The college since Mr. Pendleton's retirement has 
had varied and often trying experiences. W. H. 
Woolery, A. Mclycan, J. W. Kersey, B. C. Hager- 
man and T. E. Cramblett have successively served 
in the high office of president. President Cramblett 



494 LIFE OF W. K. PENDLETON 

is now its head, and under his administration there 
has been a notable revival of interest in the institu- 
tion, and in both the attendance of students and the 
increase of its permanent funds there is rich promise 
of better things. The sixty-first commencement in 
June, 1902, was one of the happiest and most help- 
ful of many years. Bethany's work in the past has 
been a great and noble one — for the future there are 
even greater possibilities. Sicut Patribus Sit Deus 
Nobis, 



